Hundreds of firefighters tackle oil refinery blaze in northern China

A fire that broke out on Thursday at one of the China’s largest oil refineries – run by the state oil giant PetroChina – has been put out with no reported casualties, state media reported.

The blaze came just two months after the Dalian refinery finished major maintenance.

More than 600 firefighters extinguished the blaze at the plant’s 1.4 million-tonnes a year catalytic cracker just after 9 pm and stayed at the scene to make sure equipment at the refinery remained cool, state broadcaster CCTV said on Friday.

The inferno, the latest industrial incident to rock the port city of Dalian, started at about 6.40pm due to a broken seal in a feed pump, CCTV said.

The refinery in Liaoning province owned by PetroChina Dalian Petrochemical Corp, has three crude distillation units with total processing capacity of 410,000 barrels per day of crude oil. Catalytic crackers typically produce petrol.

A spokesperson for PetroChina said the equipment connected to the catalytic cracker has been suspended. The other units in the refinery were not affected.