Monday, April 16 10:46 PM SGT

British oil refinery rocked by explosion LONDON, April 16 (AFP) - An explosion has caused a "major" fire at a Conoco oil refinery on the Humber Estuary in central England but it is not yet known if there are any injuries, police said.

More than 10 fire crews were dispatched to the 480-acre site where the fire broke out at around 2.30 pm (1330 GMT) at Immingham, north Lincolnshire, a Humberside police spokeswoman said.

http://asia.dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/world/afp/article.html?s=asia/headlines/010416/world/afp/British_oil_refinery_rocked_by_explosion.html

-- Carl Jenkins (somewherepress@aol.com), April 16, 2001

Answers

BB C

Both the refinery's crude distillation units, representing almost all of the plant's total processing capacity, were shut down but a spokesman gave reassurance on supplies.

Humberside Fire Service said the incident involved a large amount of liquid petroleum gas (LPG) and petroleum.

The blast occurred in the Saturate Gas Plant and the fire was confined to that area of the site although windows of nearby offices were damaged.

The affected area of the plant is used to separate gasolene, propane and butane but the cause of the blast is unknown.

BBC Radio Humberside reporter Helen Philpott said the oil refinery had a very good safety record.

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), April 17, 2001.