Second fire within a month hits Pemex’s Tula refinery

Mexico’s Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) has extinguished the second fire within a 2-week period at its 315,000-b/d Miguel Hidalgo refinery in Tula, Hidalgo state.

The latest fire, which occurred on Sept. 21 at 10:35 a.m. local time following a leak of an unidentified substance in heater BA-701 of the U-700-1 diesel hydrotreater, has been completely controlled, with one injury reported as a result of the incident, Pemex said.

Repair work to ruptured coils in the impacted equipment is scheduled to begin shortly, and other units at the refinery continue to operate normally, the company said.

Pemex did not disclose further details regarding the incident, including either its impact to production at the site or the potential cause of the fire.

A timeline for repairs to the affected unit remains unavailable.

On Sept. 9, Pemex extinguished a fire which broke out in the area of the refinery’s burners following a leak of an unidentified substance from a fractured vent line (OGJ Online, Sept. 11, 2015).

Earlier in the year, a fire occurred in a leaking hydrogen compressor at the refinery’s resid hydrodesulfurization, resulting in minor damages and only a brief interruption to production (OGJ Online, Mar. 9, 2015).

Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].