Lightning Sparks Fire at Hengyuan's Malaysian Refinery

Hengyuan Refining Company Bhd said on Friday that a tank storing crude oil had caught fire at its refinery on the Malaysian west coast.

Preliminary investigations show the fire at the Port Dickson refinery was due to a lightning strike, the company said in a statement.

"The damages sustained from the fire incident are restricted to one crude tank area," the company said.

The fire affected a 10,000-litre capacity oil tank, Malaysian state news agency Bernama reported, citing fire and rescue department officials. Firefighting operations were ongoing, it said.

Hengyuan is a subsidiary of China's Shandong Hengyuan Petrochemical Co. The refinery at Port Dickson has a capacity of 156,000 barrels per day (bpd).

(Reporting by A. Ananthalakshmi; Editing by Kevin Liffey)