- The situation is under control
- The operation of the refinery and fuel supplies are not a risk
- Inhabitants of municipalities and towns in the vicinity of the SDS terminal site are not at risk
- The investigation of the Police of the Czech Republic is in process
- There was no leak of hazardous substances and the environment was not put at risk
- Unipetrol promptly initiated its internal investigation – it will focus on the cause of the incident and the corrective actions
Unipetrol has taken appropriate measures related to the incident which took place on Thursday, March 22, 2018, at the road distribution terminal located outside the refinery in Kralupy nad Vltavou. There was an explosion, without subsequent fire, at one of the storage tanks which was out-of-operation and was subject to certain maintenance work. This maintenance work was in no connection to the ongoing turnaround of production in Kralupy refinery.
“We activated the highest level emergency plan immediately after the explosion. We started communicating and cooperating with the Police of the Czech Republic and Integrated Rescue System units and our crisis management committee was launched. The Crisis management committee continues to deal with this matter today,” said Krzysztof Zdziarski, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Unipetrol.
An internal investigation team was established, which will focus on the detailed investigation of the extraordinary event, its root cause, including, among others, compliance with all safety and labour regulations both on our side and on the side of the contractors. Even though all personnel working in the site undergo regular trainings and have the necessary permissions we will focus on verifying their knowledge with regard to the principles and regulations in the area of health and safety at work.
“Though our partnering companies we have expressed our deep condolences to all parties effected by this very tragic situation and have offered our help and support to the families of the deceased. We wish all the injured workers soon recovery. At the same time, we would like to express our thanks to the Integrated Rescue System personnel for their professional immediate intervention following the incident and effective assistance to our internal rescue and security units. At the same time we apologize to the inhabitants of the surrounding communities and towns for the inconvenience,“ said Krzysztof Zdziarski.
This extraordinary event should not affect the ongoing turnaround of the Kralupy refinery, with the main part being scheduled to run from March 27 to May 9. This is a planned shut-down of production, the primary reason of which is the regular maintenance of all technologies on the premises as per the applicable laws and technical-technological requirements performed every four years.
“The turnaround of production in the Kralupy refinery is carried out in accordance with the original plan. It has been prepared with great care – a team of experts has worked on it for two years. We have a detailed time schedule of all required work as well as of movement of personnel on the site,“ explained Krzysztof Zdziarski and added: “However, due to the incident we will focus on and will intensify our verification of the compliance with all health and safety and working regulations, both by us and by our contracting firms, as well.“
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________