An explosion that rocked Petro-Canada’s refinery east of Edmonton won’t affect gasoline or diesel supplies in Western Canada, the company said Wednesday.
Sneh Seetal, a spokeswoman with the company, says the refinery is under a “safe-refinery mode,” something that’s part of Petro-Canada’s safety procedures.
“What that means is some parts of the refinery are still operating, some are still producing product, but the processing unit where the explosion occurred has been isolated,” said Seetal.
The explosion occurred about 7:15 p.m. and the fire was later extinguished sometime around 8:40 p.m., said the company. All employees were accounted for and no one appeared to be hurt, said Seetal.
No tally has been made on the damages and investigators are still trying to find the cause of the blast, the company said.
A breakdown last summer at the refinery’s catalytic cracking unit, a key part of gasoline production, caused a gasoline shortage at 90 per cent of its gas stations in Western Canada.
