ANKARA (Dispatches) – Four people have lost their lives and two others sustained injuries when a powerful explosion ripped through an oil refinery in Turkey’s western province of Izmir.
Bayram Yilmaz, the governor for the province's Alia?a district, said the blast at the Tüpra? Alia?a oil refinery was an "industrial accident,” which took place due to the build-up of gas during the maintenance of a naphtha tank that had not been used for a long time.
Yilmaz added that there was no fire after the explosion and production had resumed at the refinery.
The Tüpra? Alia?a refinery is Turkey’s second-largest in terms of its annual processing capacity of 11 million tons.
The facility is located in a heavily industrialized area right next to a petrochemical plant, another oil refinery and several other oil and gas industry facilities.