Chemical leak at Shell's Pulau Bukom oil and petrochem facility, fire at ExxonMobil's Jurong plant

12-Jan-17

A chemical leak was reported by Shell at its Pulau Bukom oil and petrochemical facility on January 9, while a fire broke out at ExxonMobil's Jurong Island chemical plant on Sunday morning, as per straittimes.com. No one was hurt in both incidents. Investigations are underway at both Shell and ExxonMobil.
A Shell spokesman said its chemical leak occurred in a unit that was already closed for maintenance and that "mitigating measures were immediately taken". The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said it was alerted to the chemical leak on Monday afternoon. As a precautionary measure, SCDF stationed resources at the site throughout the leak containment operation carried out by Shell contractors. Shell did not say what the chemical was, citing commercial confidentiality. The spokesman added, "There is no adverse impact expected in the water or the surroundings. Shell has a health, safety, security and environment policy and we are strongly committed to it."

The fire at ExxonMobil's chemical plant happened at 5.30am on Sunday and was put out by the SCDF and ExxonMobil's in-house emergency response team. SCDF said the fire involved residual hydrocarbon. An ExxonMobil spokesman said: "Safety is a core value at all our operations and facilities. We learn from all incidents and use these learnings to reinforce our commitment to continued safety improvement. "While we manage our business with the goal of preventing incidents, we are prepared for emergencies should they occur and can respond quickly and effectively."