Another fire incident at Pertamina Balikpapan refinery

After being hit by heavy explosion and fire a few months ago, the oil refinery unit of the state-owned oil and gas company Pertamina in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, was hit by another fire incident on Wednesday, the local Kaltim Post daily reported.

But the paper quoted Pertamina officials as saying that the fire incident now was a minor one without any major impact on production.

The paper said that the fire incident occurred at the Hydro Creaking Complex Plant III B at around 11.15 a.m. But the paper added that the company managed to put off the fire in about 20 minutes.

Public relations officer of Pertamina Balikpapan office Mirzah Barhah said that the company could not yet detect the cause of the fire at the hydrogen pump.

The local police denied speculation of a sabotage. "It's purely accident, not sabotage," said Balikpapan police chief Superintendent Husein Hamidi.(*)