Read
- Kanye West wins over critics with 'daring' new album 'Yeezus'
- Angelina Jolie stunt double sues News Corp over hacking
- Massachusetts police search NFL player's home in homicide probe: report
- Journalist who brought down U.S. general is killed in Los Angeles car crash
- Asian markets tense before Fed; Nikkei outperforms
Reuters Photojournalism
Our day's top images, in-depth photo essays and offbeat slices of life. See the best of Reuters photography. See more | Photo caption
The Afghan Army
The many faces of the Afghan National Army, which has taken over security of the country from NATO. Slideshow
Sponsored Links
Crews extinguish fire at Venezuela's El Palito refinery
A view of the fire at El Palito refinery in Puerto Cabello in the state of Carabobo September 20, 2012.
Credit: Reuters/Stringer
CARACAS |
CARACAS (Reuters) - Firefighters extinguished a blaze in a fuel storage tank at Venezuela's El Palito refinery, state oil company PDVSA said on Saturday.
The fire was started by a lightning bolt during a storm Wednesday night, but the 146,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) El Palito facility continued operating. Two tanks were initially set alight, but the fire in one was put out within hours.
In a statement, PDVSA said the blaze in the second storage tank was completely extinguished late on Friday.
No one was hurt in Wednesday night's lightning strike.
The second refinery accident in a month has increased concerns about state oil company PDVSA's safety record and practices ahead of an October 7 presidential election.
In August, PDVSA halted almost all output at the country's biggest refinery, Amuay, for six days after a gas leak caused an explosion that killed 42 people.
PDVSA has suffered a string of accidents, outages and unplanned stoppages for maintenance across its refinery network in recent years, hurting the OPEC nation's vital fuel exports.
(Reporting by Daniel Wallis; Editing by Vicki Allen)
- Tweet this
- Link this
- Share this
- Digg this
- Reprints
Follow Reuters