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Oil refinery explosion injures two
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A LARGE explosion ripped through a US owned Conoco oil refinery in northern England on Monday, injuring two people.
The blast, at the Killingholme refinery near Grimsby in Humberside, was ``a major incident'' and eyewitnesses described an intense fire billowing vast plumes of black smoke. Two people had been taken to hospital with minor injuries.
All but two of the units at the plant had been shut down and would remain closed until further notice. One hundred and ninety-nine people including Conoco employees and external contractors were on site at the time of the blast.
One local resident whose house is four miles from the refinery said he felt his house shake with the power of the explosion. He could see flames reaching as high as 60 meters. ``The fire was very intense,'' he said.
The Killingholme refinery processes some 230,000 barrels of crude oil and other feedstocks per day. Both the refinery's crude distillation units -- representing almost all of the plants total processing capacity -- were shut down. Around 60 per cent of its products are exported, with some heading to the United States -- the world's largest consumer of energy.
A full investigation would be launched into the cause of the blast, but it was likely to take days before the results were known.
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