- The Police of the Czech Republic terminated an on-site investigation and unblocked the entry for Unipetrol experts
- Unipetrol initiated investigation – it focuses on the cause of the incident and the corrective actions
- Citizens, environment, operation of the refinery and fuel supplies were not at risk
- Operation of the distribution terminal will be restored in the following days
- The Unipetrol Foundation offered help to the injured and families of those who died
- Scheduled regular turnaround of the refinery will take place as planned
Kralupy nad Vltavou, 24 March 2018 - Unipetrol continues the investigation of 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 empty and 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.
“On Friday afternoon, the Police of the Czech Republic completed the on-site explosion investigation and handed the site back to us. The initial inspection of our expert team confirmed no major damage at the affected technology. The empty storage tank where the blast occurred is damaged. We estimate that we will restore operation of the entire terminal in the coming days,” said Krzysztof Zdziarski, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Unipetrol, and added: “Our thoughts are now with those who were injured and with families of those who lost their lives. We expressed our condolences and offered our help, whatever it is, through the supply companies who employed those workers. When the investigation of the Czech Police and our internal investigation team is over, we will know more about how the unfortunate event and will take appropriate actions. The same will be required from our partner companies. We have already called them to re-train their employees and we will increase our controls that everybody on the site follows the safety and working regulations and rules. We would like to express once again our thanks to the Integrated Rescue System teams for their professional immediate intervention and effective assistance. At the same time we do apologize to the inhabitants of the surrounding communities and towns for the inconvenience.”
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