An explosion at Turkey’s Tupras oil refinery set off a large fire in six of the plant’s nine storage tanks. The flames were only recently controlled as airplanes extinguished the blaze from above, reported Anatolia.
Turkish authorities have not yet uncovered the cause of the fire that erupted at the Akcagaz liquid petroleum gas storage center, however sources close to the refinery stated that a lorry tanker had caught fire while loading fuel at Akcagaz and flames had spread to nearby storage tanks.
Fires in eight to 10 nearby houses have been extinguished. There have been no immediate reports of death or serious injuries resulting from the accident.
Tupras is located in the northwestern city of Izmit, 74 kilometers outside of Istanbul. The refinery is the country's largest crude oil processing facility, accounting for 35 percent of the Republic’s oil and natural gas supplies with 30 storage tanks holding over seven million barrels of crude oil. — (menareport.com)
© 2002 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
