4 Workers Were Killed and 2 Others Were Wounded in an Explosion at Refinery in Turkey

Four workers were killed and two others were wounded in an explosion at the TÜPRAŞ Aliağa Refinery in Turkey's western Izmir province on Wednesday, District Governor Bayram Yılmaz said, Daily Sabah writes.

Yılmaz said that the explosion took place due to gas entrapment during the maintenance of a naphtha tank that has not been used for a long time.
He added that there has not been a fire after the explosion and production resumes in the refinery.

An initial statement from the company said the explosion took place at 09:25 a.m. local time during the maintenance of a product storage tank and the refinery's technical units intervened to the incident. Four workers of a sub-contracting firm lost their lives, it added.

The refinery, operated by Turkey's only oil refiner in Aliağa district, is the country'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 petrochemicals manufacturing plant, another oil refinery and several other oil and gas industry facilities.