Tehran: An explosion and fire at an Iranian oil refinery on Friday was brought under control and caused no casualties, while a separate oil field blast killed one person, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported.
"At the moment, the (refinery) incident has been completely brought under control," Majid Rajabi, managing director of the Shazand oil refinery, told Mehr.
"The incident caused neither casualties nor financial damage and everything is normal now," he said.
Rajabi said an accumulation of gas caused the incident.
Last year a scheme to develop Shazand was launched with an investment of USD 3.3 billion to boost its initial refining capacity from 170,000 barrels per day to 250,000 bpd and increase the country's gasoline production by two million litres per day.
The second incident occurred at an oil field at Bibi Hakimeh near the Gulf, killing one person and injuring three, Mehr said.
Mehr said it occurred during drilling when workers unexpectedly encountered an "enormous volume of unknown accumulated gas" in the layers of a reservoir.
Bureau Report
First Published: Friday, October 28, 2011, 16:51