Five Cases of Fire in Pertamina Refineries in the Last 3 Years

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Pertamina's oil refinery in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, caught fire again last Saturday, May 25, at around 7:30 a.m. local time. It was the third fire in the Balikpapan oil refinery in the last two years after two incidents on March 4 and May 15, 2022.

Bayu Arafat, general manager of the Balikpapan unit of Pertamina International Refinery (KPI), said the fire occurred in the refinery area, so there was no impact on the surrounding community. Fortunately, there were no casualties in the incident.

Saturday's fire adds to the long list of fire incidents at Pertamina's refineries and depots in recent years. Below are five cases of Pertamina oil refinery fires in the last two to three years:

1. Pertamina Refinery fire in Dumai, Riau

Five workers were injured when Pertamina's Dumai Refinery Unit II in Riau Province caught fire on Saturday night, April 1, 2023 at around 22:40. The fire was extinguished at 22:54 the same day without causing any major impact on the refinery operations and the surrounding environment.

2. Fire at Pertamina's Plumpang Depot in North Jakarta

The Pertamina Plumpang depot experienced a fire on Friday evening, March 3, 2023. The fire started from the gasoline pipe in the complex and spread to houses of people living near the depot. A total of 17 people died in the fire, including two children, while 50 others were injured.

3. Pertamina Refinery Fires in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan

Just over two years before Saturday's incident, the Pertamina oil refinery in Balikpapan also experienced a fire, on May 15, 2022 to be exact. This fire occurred at the Plant 5 Unit Hydro Skimming Complex, which is tasked with producing raw materials for gasoline products such as Pertalite and Pertamax, killing one worker and injuring five others.

Three months earlier, on March 4, 2022, the same refinery also experienced a fire due to a flash fire at the inlet of the finfan cooler hydrocracker B tube at Refinery Unit (RU) V Balikpapan.

4. Fire at Pertamina's Unit IV oil refinery in Cilacap

The Cilacap refinery of PT Pertamina (Persero) Refinery Unit IV experienced two fires in 2021. The first incident was on June 11 at 19:45 when the T39 tank containing benzene, which is used as a raw material for petrochemical products, caught fire.   On November 13 at 19:10, the fire engulfed the 36 T-102 tanks containing 31,000 kiloliters of Pertalite product components.

5. Fire at the RU VI Oil Refinery in Balongan, Indramayu

The fire broke out at 1:15 a.m. on March 29, 2021, caused by a gas leak that occurred approximately two hours earlier. Three premium product tank units caught fire during the incident, which killed one person and injured 14 others, five of them critically.

TEMPO.CO

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