A fire and subsequent explosion destroyed a furnace for a unit in the base oil plant at Gazprom Nefts Omsk refinery on July 16, according to the Russian emergency ministry.
Omsk emergency firefighters arrived at the scene of fire at 7:12 a.m. this past Saturday. Upon arrival at the plant, the fire brigade noted that the oil was burning in the coil pipe inside the furnace. Approximately 10 cubic meters of oil in the coil pipe was set on fire, the ministry press department said.
As a result of the fire, an explosion of a gaseous mixture destroyed the unit, razing its nearby 36 meters high brick chimney. No injuries were reported. Ten firefighting vehicles and 30 men responded to the call. As a result, the unit used for heating the extractive methyl solution (lube fraction) was temporarily shut off, while the plants overall production process was not impacted, Gazprom Neft stated.
The fire was extinguished at 7:24 am. No information was available immediately about the cause or estimated damage costs of the fire, which was in a furnace for an oil filtration unit used in the production of lube fractions. An investigation is underway to determine why the fire broke out in the unit and how much damage was done.
The company did not respond to Lube Report questions by press time.
A similar event occurred at the Omsk base oil plant in late May, when a fire broke out in the deasphalting unit heater.
The Omsk fuel refinery, including the 250,000 tons per year API Group I base oil plant, was built in 1955, and plant operator Gazprom Neft-SM has made efforts to modernize and upgrade it since 2009. It also operates a nearby lubricants blending facility with 50,000 tons per year capacity.
Gazprom Neft-SM is the lubricants arm of the Russian energy giant Gazprom.