Shell's Bukom island refinery fire extinguished
UPDATE
The fire that was raging for almost two days at Shell's Pulau Bukom refinery was finally extinguished on Thursday night.
However, traces of fuel vapour remain in the area, which makes the air surrounding the refinery more combustible, said Shell.
Shell is standing by with the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) and its global fire consultants are on site. Its in-house global fire expert will also be in Singapore from Friday to provide assistance, said the company.
In a statement on Thursday night, Shell's spokesperson said the oil giant is monitoring the situation.
She added, "We are prepared to shut down all refinery units if this is considered necessary from a safety perspective, with the exception of utilities."
Other precautionary measures the company has taken is monitoring the air quality around Bukom four times a day, shutting down the neighbouring units within the vicinity of the fire and isolating the lines and cooling the tanks in the area to prevent entry of any fresh hydrocarbons.
The affected area has lengths of pipelines and connected pumps, and holds a mix of hydrocarbons. This caused the erratic fire that sometimes waned and sometimes grew, said the spokesperson.
At a press briefing on Thursday evening, before the fire was put out, Shell's vice-president for manufacturing operations Martijn van Koten said, "We are focused on safety and are going through the progressive shutdown of the refinery."
Shell Singapore's chairman Lee Tzu Yang said the company will shut down its whole facility if that's what it takes to put out the blaze completely.
He said checking through the series of complicated and inter-connecting pipelines that spanned the refinery made it challenging to put out the fire, which occurred in multiple spots.
Shutting down Shell's largest refinery in the world will take two days.
Lee said that the company "deeply regrets" the accident and that their priority was to safely tackle the fire, which started on Wednesday afternoon.
While it is too early to determine the cause of the fire, van Koten said that it may have started during the maintenance process but declined to give more details saying it would be pure speculation.
SCDF said about 100 fire fighters are putting out the fire with six fire engines and 13 support vehicles. About 20 water jets are being used to cool down and prevent heat exposure to the nearby storage tanks situated around the fire.
A Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) signals vehicle was also seen at Pasir Panjang Ferry Terminal, where SCDF and police have stationed at least three mobile command posts.
Addressing concerns about the black smoke from the fire, the National Environment Agency said it has not affected Singapore so far.
But Shell said it will continue to monitor pollution levels four times a day and that it is within acceptable levels so far.
The company also said that the six Shell firefighters who were injured while fighting the initial outbreak have gone back to their normal duties after medical treatment.
