Petrobras Depot Explosion Kills Two

Workers were engaged in a planned maintenance job of the fuel heating unit at Petrobras Depot when a fire broke out following a blast at the unit.  The fire was soon brought under control by on-site firefighters.  The names and identity of the two dead workers were not immediately available.

The state-run oil company, Petrobras have the naval-fuels depot at the Port of Tubarão near Vitória, Brazil.  This unit supplies bunker fuel to vessels including the giant dry-bulk carriers that ship Vale iron ore at the port.

The heating unit is used to raise the temperature and reduce the viscosity of bunker fuel for easier loading into ships.

In this year alone, 26 injured cases and 13 fatal accidents have been reported to have occurred at the facilities owned or operated on behalf of Petrobras in Espirito Santo, Brazil.  Norway’s BW Offshore Ltd, an offshore ONG company, which was operating a ship on behalf of Petrobras, exploded in January. Nine were killed and 26 seriously injured.  Similarly, in July two Petrobras shipping workers were killed at the site in Aracruz and in Espirito Santo state when the scaffolding they were standing on collapsed into the ocean.

Source: Reuters

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