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An explosion at a petroleum product storage facility in the Dutch port of Rotterdam caused the death of one person and left six injured, local authorities reported. Police are keeping all hypotheses open, although they ruled out initial signs of sabotage.
Energy trading company Gunvor stated that the "incident" occurred during maintenance work at one of its oil derivative depots.
The Port of Rotterdam is the largest in Europe and one of the main centers for crude oil and fuel import and storage on the continent. It also houses the continent's largest refinery, Pernis, which is operated by Shell.
Gunvor assured that they are collaborating with local authorities, while Shell and the port administration confirmed that neither their operations nor the liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals suffered direct impacts.
However, data from gas transport group Entsog reflected a temporary drop and subsequent volatility in supply from the Gate LNG terminal.
It has not yet been determined whether this fluctuation was a consequence of the incident or an independent power outage recorded in another area of the port facility.
Any prolonged interruption will be closely watched by the market, as Gate is a key node for LNG imports in Northwest Europe, and according to data from Gas Infrastructure Europe, Dutch gas storage facilities are barely at 40% of their capacity before winter.
For its part, ExxonMobil confirmed that it resolved the power outage and is operating normally at its 191,000 barrel-per-day refinery, declining to confirm Wood Mackenzie's alert about a supposed shutdown of its units.
Meanwhile, the port administration and local security authorities categorically ruled out any connection between previous power outages recorded at the facility and the explosion.
