(ICIS) -- The ongoing blaze at Shell's refinery at Bukom Island in Singapore surged at midday on Thursday as explosions were heard at the site, but the fire is contained within a specific area. ⌠The source of the fire is remnant light fuel components within the specific area where the fire originated. The smoke observed is from hydrocarbons that are not fully combusted, Shell said.
The fire, which has been raging at Shell's Bukom manufacturing site since Wednesday afternoon, involves petroleum products from pipes in the tank farm at the manufacturing facility at Bukom, according to the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF).
The SCDF said that fire fighting operations are still ongoing at the site, adding that two of its fire engines deployed at the site have been badly damaged. Water jets were being used to carry out cooling operations at the Bukom site, it said.
Shell had shut some of the production facilities located in Bukom, including a hydrocracking unit that makes diesel, as a safety precaution. The company's integrated complex at Bukom has a crude distillation capacity of 500,000 bbl/day. It is Shell's largest refinery in the world in terms of crude distillation capacity. Two of the three CDUs at the site have been shut down, according to market sources.
MRC