Around 5:40 a.m. on April 16, 2006, an explosion and fire occurred in the vicinity of vacuum gas oil desulfurization unit in Chiba oil refinery (location: 2 Goikaigan Ichihara, Chiba, Executive chief: Takashi Yajima) of Cosmo Oil Co., Ltd. (Head office: 1-1-1, Shibaura, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Capital: 62.4 billion yen, President: Yaichi Kimura).
We would like to offer our sincere apologies for all the trouble and distress this incident has caused.
The circumstances at 7:00 p.m. on April 18 are as follows.
| Circumstances on April 18 | To respond to this accident, on this day of April 18, we established "Chiba Oil Refinery Accident Investigation Committee for the Vacuum Gas Oil Desulfurization Unit and the Hydrogen Production Unit No.1," the members of which are Masahide Huruzono, Executive Director as the Chairman, and third-party members including academic experts and officers from relevant authorities. The City Fire Department continued its on-site investigation at the Chiba oil refinery on April 18. Further on-site investigation will be conducted under the instruction of the authorities from tomorrow. |
|---|---|
| Facilities shut down for safety | The vacuum gas oil desulfurization unit and the hydrogen production unit No.1 have been shut down by order of the Fire Department since immediately after the accident. We also took the autonomous decision to shut down the topping unit No.2, vacuum distillation unit No. 2, and hydrogenerated desulfurization unit No.4. |
* We will continuously and fully cooperate with the relevant authorities and make our utmost efforts to identify the cause of the fire and to take measures against future reoccurrence.
