On the evening of June 15, an explosion and subsequent fire occurred at OAO Roseneft’s Achinsk Refinery in Eastern Siberia. There has been no official report made from Roseneft regarding the incident and unofficial reports give mixed details. At 19:53 local time, the explosion to place – either in a distillation column or the fractionation unit of the refinery, followed by a fire that was finally extinguished by 00:30 on June 16th. Emercom has confirmed that twelve people were injured by the blast but has made no official count of fatalities. The Moscow Times reports that seven people died, seven were injured and 2 are missing. The Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case of charges of violating safety requirements and causing death by negligence.
The plant had been shut down on May 11 for regular maintenance and the restart was planned for June 16. A Rosneft spokeperson declined comment on the cause of the explosion or the status of refinery operations. The plant has both a Delayed Coking unit and a Fluid Catalytic Cracking Unit.
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