Indonesian officials demand audit after Pertamina fire kills 13 | – #Indonesian #officials #demand #audit #Pertamina #fire #kills
JAKARTA, March 4 (Reuters) – Indonesian officials have called for an investigation and audit of state energy company Pertamina’s ( PERTM.UL ) facilities after a warehouse fire killed 13 people.
At around 8pm on Friday (GMT 0100) starting from a fuel pipe at Pertamina’s Plumpang fuel depot in the capital Jakarta fire it quickly spread to nearby houses and panicked residents in the densely populated area.
Officials initially reported that the number of dead was 17, but later corrected it to 13. Dozens were injured and hundreds of people were evacuated.
North Jakarta fire official Abdul Unit said that fire was extinguished early Saturday morning.
“I have ordered Pertamina to immediately investigate this case thoroughly,” State Enterprises Minister Erick Thohir said on his Instagram page.
“There should be an operational review,” he added.
Parliament Sugeng Suparvoto, who heads the energy committee, demanded an audit of Pertamina facilities.
Latest UpdatesLayer and Infrastructure CategoryExclusive: Russia damaged “North Stream” gas preparing to destroy pipelines – sources, article in the gallery gallery
See 2 more stories
“All facilities, whether oil refineries or warehouses, should be re-inspected,” he told KompasTV, often visiting Pertamina’s facilities. fire noted that there were incidents.
In 2021, a major fire broke out at Pertamina’s oil refineries in Balongan and Cilacap.
Sugeng also said there should be a greater distance between Pertamina warehouses and residential areas. “For a facility with the capacity of Plumpang, it should be at least one to two kilometers away from the residential area.”
With a storage capacity of over 300,000 kilo liters, Plumpang is one of Pertamina’s largest fuel terminals.
According to a Reuters witness, the dense residential area is located outside Plumpang’s outer wall and is separated only by a narrow street.
Abdul Syukur, who lives nearby, told KompasTV that local residents smelled fuel about 30 minutes before the fire.
“The smell was so strong that people vomited and some almost passed out,” he said.
Chief Executive Officer Nicke Widyawati said Pertamina would launch an internal investigation, while Jakarta’s fuel supply would remain secure as the company diverted supplies from other terminals.
Reporting by Fransiska Nangoy, Willy Kurniawan, Bernadette Christina Munthe; Edited by Himani Sarkar
Our standards: Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
2023-03-04 07:09:35
Source – reuters
Translation“24 HOURS”