Kuwait Petroleum Says Rotterdam Refinery Fire Is Out

Kuwait Petroleum Corp., the state- owned oil and refining company, said a fire in a desulfurization unit at its Europoort refinery in Rotterdam has been put out.

The fire brigade gave the all-clear at 2 a.m. local time and the affected part of the refinery has been taken out of operation, the Kuwait-based company said in an e-mailed statement.

“At the moment, unaffected parts from the refinery are still on line,” plant manager Ian McConnell said in a phone interview today. He declined to comment on whether force majeure would be declared on any shipments.

The damage was limited to one unit, spokesman Aad Polak said in a telephone interview today. Kuwait Petroleum has several desulfurization units in Rotterdam, he said, adding that the company can switch between these facilities “to some extent.”

It is too early to assess the exact damage and how long repairs may take, Polak said. He declined to comment on the effect of the fire on the refinery’s capacity.

Kuwait Petroleum notified the fire brigade of the blaze at 8.45 p.m. local time, said Remco Spaninxs, a spokesman for the police in the Rotterdam-Rijnmond area yesterday.

The fire occurred in a gasoil desulfurization unit, which Kuwait Petroleum had planned to shut down for normal maintenance, Spaninxs said. “It could be that something went wrong in that process,” the police spokesman said. “The part of the plant that is affected will burn down completely.”

An investigation into the cause of the fire has been started in cooperation with the authorities, Kuwait Petroleum said in the statement today. The company will study whether the accident was linked to scheduled maintenance, Polak said. The Rotterdam refinery has the capacity to process 79,500 barrels of oil a day.