Japan's Idemitsu shuts desulphurisation unit after fire
TOKYO (Reuters) -- Japanese oil refiner Idemitsu Kosan Co said it conducted an emergency shutdown of a desulphurisation unit at its 200,000-bpd Chiba refinery after a fire near a heat exchanger.
The crude distillation unit at the plant, east of Tokyo, is continuing to operate, with no impact on cargoes being sent from the facility's truck terminal or by sea, a company spokesman said.
The fire at the 60,000 bpd No.3 light gas oil hydrodesulphurisation unit occurred at around 4:40 a.m. on Wednesday and the local fire department confirmed that it was extinguished at 7:30 a.m., the company said in a statement.
There were no injuries and there was no schedule for the restart of the unit as an investigation into the cause of the fire is underway.
The company did not immediately say whether the operations of other secondary units had been affected by the fire.
Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori; Editing by Joseph Radford
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