By Charlotte Van Campenhout and Inti Landauro
AMSTERDAM, Aug 13 (Reuters) – A blast at a storage facility for petroleum products at the Netherlands’ Rotterdam port killed one person and wounded several others on Thursday, officials said, adding that the cause was unknown.
A spokesperson for major energy commodities trading company Gunvor said an “incident” occurred during maintenance work on a storage tank. A police spokesperson said that there was no immediate sign of sabotage and that all possible scenarios were under investigation.
Rotterdam is Europe’s largest port and comprises oil refineries, liquefied natural gas terminals and multiple petrochemical facilities. Shell, Exxon Mobil, BP and Gunvor Energy are among the energy majors operating at the port.
The explosion occurred at around 11:30 a.m. (0930 GMT).
Gunvor said it was cooperating with local authorities.
Shell said its operations at the port were unaffected by the blast.
A Rotterdam Port spokesperson said LNG terminals were not affected.
Exxonmobil shut all units at its 191,000 barrels/day Rotterdam refinery due to a power outage, consultancy Wood Mackenzie said in an alert to clients seen by Reuters. Exxonmobil did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Rotterdam Port said there was no connection between the blast and the power outage.
(Reporting by Charlotte Van Campenhout and Inti Ladnauro; Writing by Richard Lough; Editing by Toby Chopra and Hugh Lawson)
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