Pemex's Deer Park refinery reduces operations following fatal accident

The Deer Park refinery of the Mexican national oil company Pemex, near Houston, will be operating at a reduced level this weekend following a deadly leak two days ago.

The state-owned oil company added that it continues to investigate the cause of last Thursday's hydrogen sulfide gas leak that killed two contract workers while injuring 35 others during work on a unit at the 312,500-barrel-per-day (bpd) refinery.

Mexico's Energy Minister said that she expects the facility to resume normal operations by the end of Friday.

The company has now retracted that statement.

The company stated in a statement released on Friday that "the refinery continues to run in stable conditions, at a low-level. This level will continue to be maintained during the weekend so long as access is possible to the affected areas for inspections."

The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, which investigates industrial accidents and provides recommendations for preventing future incidents and also began an investigation into what they described as a'very serious incident. (Reporting and editing by David Alire Garcia, Ana Isabel Martinez)

(source: Reuters)