London, June 03: A blast in an oil refinery in west Wales has killed four people, shaking the windows and sending black smoke in the air, Milford Haven coastguards say.
The explosion happened with “a massive bang” at the Chevron refinery at Pembroke Dock just after 1720 GMT on Thursday but the cause has not been defined yet, the state-run BBC reported.
A spokesman for Welsh Ambulance Services had earlier confirmed that paramedics dealt with casualties at the scene, but because of the heat of the flames, it was not yet certain how many people had actually been hurt.
The Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service sent 10 engines to the scene and brought the incident under control within an hour and a half.
The refinery was formerly known as Texaco, later rebranded Chevron-Texaco and known as Chevron since around 2005.
In March, Chevron confirmed Texan Oil Company Valero Energy had agreed to buy the refinery for USD 730 million and pay a further USD one billion for the stocks of oil, petrol and other products on site.
The site can refine 220,000 barrels of crude oil a day into petrol and other products.
——–Agencies