One person is dead and another is in hospital with burns after an explosion at Nexen’s Long Lake facilty, which occurred Friday afternoon.
CBC reports that the company’s coker exploded. The worker in the hospital is in critical condition and has been admitted to the University of Alberta’s burn centre.
Nexen says all other personnel have been accounted for.
The facility has been shut down and the scene has been stabilized. Emergency personnel are on the scene.
Nesxen is a wholly-owned subsidiaries of the Chinese company CNOOC Limited. Long Lake, which is 40 km southeast of Fort McMurray, uses steam assisted and gravity drainage for oil extraction.
Comments
LAMB
Without knowing exactly what happened, I would guess that safety precautions were not taken, gas sensors were probably not working or were not installed because they would stop production – very similar to the coal mine explosion in Nova Scotia several years ago where a methane explosion killed 26 miners – the owners
by-passed gas detectors to keep production going – and a Chinese company would not have the same Health & Safety concerns as a Canadian company. The ALBERTA Government may also have not made the appropriate site safety checks on a regular basis, similar to what happened in Nova Scotia.