Shell declares force majeure after fire at Singapore refinery

Royal Dutch Shell PLC’s largest refinery in the world, located at Pulau Bukom in Singapore is expected to remain shut for at least a month, Reuters reported, citing industry sources. Shell also has declared force majeure on some customers following a fire that forced the closure of its 500,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) refinery. “We confirm that Force Majeure has been declared on some of our customers,” Lee Tzu Yang, chairman of Shell Companies in Singapore, said on its website. “We continue to be in discussions with our customers to address their supply of product needs and to minimize any potential impact to them.” The refinery produces 6.5-7.0 million barrels of distillates, of which gas oil is about 4.5 million barrels. It also produces another 4.0-4.5 million barrels of gasoline, with about 90% of the refinery’s output exported. The fire broke out on September 28 and lasted for about 30 hours before being put out, forcing Shell to shut its entire refinery. An investigation conducted by Singapore’s Ministry of Manpower (MOM) found that a suction truck that was involved in siphoning residual oil through a pipeline, in preparation for maintenance work, could have caused a spark and ignited the oil, The Straits Times reported. The fire eventually spread and became a lot bigger within the area of the pump house. There were no casualties reported. (October 2, 2011)