Fire causes blasts at French oil refinery

PARIS

Hundreds of firefighters have succeeded in extinguishing a blaze at an oil refinery in southern France after two explosions were heard in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Bouches-du-Rhone prefecture confirmed that the fire had to be tackled.

According to the prefecture, two blasts were heard at the LyondellBasell plant in the town of Berre-l'Etang at 3 a.m. local time (0100 GMT).

No injuries were reported.

Two storage tanks, 500 meters apart, have been affected, according to the statement: "The first contains gasoline and the second contains naphtha."

"Given the product in the tanks and the height of the smoke plume, there is no significant or immediate risk to the health," it added.

"The type of combustion of the smoke does not represent a risk of toxicity, only in cases of long-term exposure which is not the case in today’s blasts," according to the French energy ministry.

The affected plant is close to Marseille Provence Airport, the fifth-busiest in the country, but the authorities say there has been no impact on air traffic so far.

LyondellBasell Industries describes itself as a multinational chemical company that works on processing plants that convert high volumes of liquid and gaseous hydrocarbon feedstocks into plastic resins and other chemicals.