Pipe break causes Balikpapan II refinery explosion

A pipe break has been suspected as the main source of this week explosion at the state-owned oil and gas firm Pertamina's Balikpapan II oil refinery unit in East Kalimantan, according to head of the province's police detective unit Senior Superintendent Abdurrahman.

But Abdurrahman was quoted as saying by the local Kaltim Post daily that the police was still investigating the reason for the pipe break.

He said that the related materials had been sent to the crime lab at the Police headquarters in Jakarta.

Abdurrahman said that so far the police had not found any indication of sabotage in the explosion incident that occurred Monday morning and injured to Pertamina employees.

The Platformer 5 of the Balikpapan II refinery unit was ruined by the explosion and until now it has not been operated as Pertamina was still awaiting for the imported equipment to fix. But Pertamina has started the rest of the Balikpapan II refinery unit. (*)