Preliminary report on explosion at petroleum company in Trinidad expected today

(CMC): A preliminary report on an explosion at the National Petroleum Marketing (NP) company’s tank farm in Trinidad and Tobago's capital, Port of Spain, is to be provided today.

There were no fatalities in the incident, which took place on Friday, but two people who were near to the tank were injured in the blast. They were taken to hospital for emergency treatment. One of the injured workers has since been discharged and the other remains in stable condition in the intensive care unit of the Port of Spain General Hospital .

According to reports, the explosion occurred when a contractor was on site extracting residual products from a storage tank, as part of routine repair exercises. 

Video of the incident showed the top of the tank being blasted off due to the force of the explosion.  

The CEO of the company, John Gormandy, called for an independent probe of the incident.

“We want an in-depth probe of the matter and will be getting a mixed team of NP personnel, as well as others from outside of the company to handle this,” he said.

Gormandy projected the independent probe should be completed within a week or two.

He said the explosion was the first of its kind in recent history. The last was almost 50 years ago involving an LPG tank.

Yesterday, energy sector experts described an in-depth investigation as a positive move. 

They said areas of concern include the procedures involved in work on the tank, its state at the time and its compliance with standards.

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