Brazilian refinery hit by explosion, fire | Oil & Gas Journal

An explosion and subsequent fire at Petroleo Brasileiro SA’s (Petrobras) 323,000-b/d Landulpho Alves refinery (RLAM) in Sao Francisco do Conde, Bahia, Brazil, has left three union workers seriously injured.

The blast occurred on Jan. 18 in the refinery’s U-38 hydrogen generation unit during planned maintenance activities, according to Jan. 19 notices posted to Brazilian oil worker union web sites.

The Jan. 18 explosion at RLAM follows a Jan. 14 fire that broke out in the refinery’s U-30 normal paraffin unit, the union notices said.

Petrobras has not disclosed any details regarding impacts to operations at RLAM as a result of the incidents.

U-38 has a hydrogen generation capacity of 1.1 million normal cu m/day, while U-30 has normal paraffin production capacity of 1,300 cu m/day (about 8,200 b/d), according to Brazil’s National Petroleum Agency.

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