BP has confirmed a South Oil Company (SOC) announcement that there has been a “big” fire at an associated gas compression plant adjacent to crude processing facilities at the Rumaila oil field.
Initial reports state that 6 workers have been killed, with Reuters relaying an Irai police report that one worker is dead, nine injured and three missing at the plant. A BP spokesman has told the Wall Street Journal that none of their staff were involved.
“A big fire erupted in the central crude processor facility in Rumaila south”, sources from the South Oil Company told Reuters. Firefighters were immediately called to the scene of the ongoing blaze, the sources said. “The fire is still burning, we are trying to control it”, they added.
Reuters, quoting unnamed sources from the South Oil Company (SOC), says the fire may curb production form the supergiant field. Rumaila, which currently pumps 1.2 million barrels per day and is slated to pump 2.85 million bpd by 2017, accounts for 40% of total Iraqi oil exports.
BP says its crude processing unit is not on fire, and that the blaze is at a neighbouring gas compressor plant run by SOC, according to James Herron of Dow Jones Newswires. However, becaue the gas unit receives associated gas from the neighbouring oil facility, oil production may be affected.
