Explosion at Balikpapan refinery won't affect facility
Friday, January 5 2001 - 05:00 AM WIB
The explosion and fire incident on Wednesday at the Balikpapan refinery of the state-owned oil and gas firm Pertamina will not affect the performance of the refinery, according to company president Baihaki Hakim.
Baihaki said Thursday that out of the three compressors, only one could not be operated because of the fire incident.
"The damage one will be immediately repaired and in the near future can be in operation again," Baihaki said.
Pertamina downstream director Arifi Nawawi confirmed. He said that the Wednesday incident would also not affect fuel supply in the East Kalimantan province.
"The fuel supply is still enough for 23 days . There are two hydro crackers A and B, and only the A hydro cracker which is damaged. Each hydro cracker has a capacity of around 27 thousands barrel," Arifi said.
He also said that the minor explosion was caused by a "leakage" because of contact with hydrogen.
"So if there's leakage it will explode. It's a normal thing," he added.
The operation of the Balikpapan refinery facility was halted for around 20 minutes on Wednesday following the fire incident. The Pertamina officials managed to put off the fire immediately.(amoros)