PetroChina''s refinery fire extinguished

Firefighters have extinguished a diesel oil tank fire that broke out on Monday at state-owned PetroChina's largest oil refinery in the northeastern Chinese coastal city of Dalian, the second fire that hit the plant in less than two months, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. The blaze at a refinery owned by PetroChina, the country's largest oil producer, demanded a force of 296 firefighters and 65 fire trucks, Xinhua said, adding that no casualties have been reported. A blast in the pipeline linking two oil tanks triggered the fire at around 10:00 am (0200 GMT). The potential existed for a worse fire due to its close proximity to tanks of liquefied petroleum gas, aviation gasoline and other oil tanks. The Dalian refinery has three crude distillation units with total crude processing capacity of 410,000 barrel-per-day (bpd). It was the second blaze at the plant following the fire on July 16, which was triggered off by leak in a petrochemical device. No casualties reported in the July fire, but the blaze has forced PetroChina to shut down a 200,000 bpd crude distillation unit till now.