Indonesia’s state run oil giant, Pertamina said it guarantees that fuel oil supplies will continue to run normally after a fire broke out on Saturday earlier and destroyed the Crude Distillation Unit (CDU) VI at Balikpapan, East Kalimantan Province.
“The fire did not cause disruption to the supply of fuel to the community,” General Manager of the Pertamina International Refinery (KPI) Balikpapan Unit Bayu Arafat stated in Balikpapan, Saturday.
Although the KPI Balikpapan Unit carried out an emergency suspension of operations at the Balikpapan Refinery Two, the Balikpapan Refinery One is still operating normally.
He explained that CDU is the initial process of crude oil fractionation. The process is complex, as there are several fluctuations in the rate of crude oil, which is the feed from the unit.
The fire incident that destroyed the Balikpapan Pertamina Refinery Unit occurred at around 4:25 a.m. local time but was successfully localized through intensive and defensive handling.
The fire team was alert to handle the incident according to the company’s emergency management procedures, and the static fire extinguisher at the scene of the incident was activated to help douse and localize the heat source.
“Currently, the fire team has succeeded in controlling the conditions and is carrying out cooling efforts,” he revealed.
“We also ensure that there are no heat sources at the scene, and it is completely safe,” he remarked.
The fire brigade crew of PT KPI Balikpapan used eight firefighter fleet units in total to put out the fire that was raging in CDU VI. The fire was effectively put out at approximately 7:30 a.m. local time.
The location of the incident is within the refinery area, and the team continues to ensure that the refinery is in a safe condition, so that it does not have a direct impact on the surrounding community.
