Blast rips through Mexico oil refinery

AN EXPLOSION ripped through a major refinery in northern Mexico yesterday, state oil company Pemex said, but officials were unable to confirm reports that several people were killed.

Local media in northern Mexico reported that seven people had died in the explosion at Pemex's Cadeyreta complex, Mexico's most sophisticated oil refinery and the country's third largest, with a capacity of 275,000 barrels per day.

"We felt the windows shake. It was only a few seconds, but the whole building shook," said Jose Luis Garza, a government employee in Juarez, about 20 minutes from the refinery.

The blast could force Mexico, which already relies on imports for more than 40 percent of domestic gasoline demand, to significantly boost fuel imports.

Mexico bought 432,000 barrels a day of fuel from the United States in June, making it the top importer of US refined products, according to the US government.

US crude oil and RBOB gasoline futures pared losses slightly after the explosion .

The explosion comes in a year marred by serious accidents in the North American oil industry, including the months-long Deepwater Horizon spill, a major pipeline accident in Michigan and an explosion at a Gulf of Mexico natural gas platform.

Francisco Montano, a Pemex spokesman in Mexico City, said the blast took place in one of the Cadeyreta refinery's hydrotreating units, which removes sulfur from fuels under high pressure in the presence of explosive hydrogen gas. He was unable to say whether anyone had been killed or injured. An official who answered the phone at the refinery could not confirm any deaths in the blast.

Mexico, the world's seventh largest oil producer, must import fuel due to a lack of refining capacity.Reuters