Fire Breaks Out At Tüpraş Refinery In Northwestern Turkey

Fire Breaks Out At Tüpraş Refinery In Northwestern Turkey

A blaze erupted on Wednesday at the Turkish Petroleum Refineries Corporation (Tüpraş) refinery in the northwestern province of Kocaeli, leading to a large number of firefighters being dispatched to the area.

In a written statement from Tüpraş, it was said that a fire broke out at Tüpraş’s refinery in the town of İzmit at 3:15 p.m. on Wednesday due to a failure of technical equipment.

“Our technical team has been intervening in the incident in a controlled way,” Tüpraş said.

The Doğan news agency reported that the workers in the refinery and residents in nearby apartments were evacuated following the fire.Television footage from Doğan showed large plumes of dark smoke curling up from the plant. A large number of firefighters were dispatched to the area, Doğan said.

A Tüpraş spokeswoman speaking to Reuters reportedly said the operations to put out the blaze are continuing without interruption.“Firefighter teams have been trying to put out the fire,” the unnamed official was quoted as saying.

The refinery can process around 11 million tonnes of crude oil per year and has a storage capacity of 2.91 million cubic meters. İzmit Bay is also a key shipping hub for Turkey’s crude imports. The sole Turkish refiner Tüpraş, owned by Turkey’s largest conglomerate Koç Holding, has a total of four refineries across Turkey with over 28 million tonnes of crude processing capacity.