Sunoco Logistics Sees no Impact to Texas Terminal Ops

A fire on Friday night that injured seven workers had no significant impact on operations at Sunoco Logistics' giant crude oil terminal on the Texas Gulf Coast, a company spokesman said on Saturday.

"This hasn't significantly impacted our operations," said Sunoco Logistics spokesman Jeffrey Shields by telephone.

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration opened an investigaton into the accident on Saturday, Shields said. An OSHA spokesman was not available on Saturday.

The seven workers were injured in an apparent flash fire while constructing piping that will connect new tanks at the crude oil terminal with a storage capacity of 24 million barrels.

The workers, all employees of L-Con Inc, which was hired by Sunoco Logistics to perform the construction work, were welding when the fire broke out, the company said in a statement.

Three of the workers sustained minor injuries and have been treated and released from hospitals near Nederland, which is 93 miles (150 km ) east of Houston.

Four workers remain in burn centers in southeast Texas. Three were flown to hospitals in Houston and Galveston, Texas by helicopters shortly after being injured.

Crude oil, natural gas liquids and refined products are stored at the Nederland terminal, which is connected to a 6,000-mile pipeline network in the Midwest and along the Gulf Coast.

(Reporting by Erwin Seba; Editing by Tom Brown and Simon Cameron-Moore)