One person is dead and multiple workers are injured after a Friday afternoon explosion at Nexen’s Long Lake site. The employee who was seriously injured was sent to a local hospital and has subsequently been transported to Edmonton for further treatment.
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AER spokesperson Carrie Rosa said the facility is in the process of shutting down.
The Alberta Workers’ Compensation Board said the overall number of occupational fatalities in Alberta declined from 188 in 2013 to 169 in 2014 – with 47 deemed to be “workplace incidents”.
The company said regulators had been notified.
“No matter how badly we feel, it pales in comparison to the pain that two of our employees’ families are experiencing”, Fang said.
Canadian broadcaster CTV reported that the workers were changing valves on a compressor when the blast occurred. Long Lake, which is 40 km southeast of Fort McMurray, uses steam assisted and gravity drainage for oil extraction.
Nexen’s Long Lake facility outside Fort McMurray, Alta.
According to the company’s website, the hydrocracker is where hydrogen is combined with partially upgraded oil to remove sulphur and produce synthetic crude.
The lost production will be just under 50,000 barrels a day, he said.
The shutdown adds to the strain on Nexen from plunging oil prices and a pipeline leak that caused an oil spill in July.
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Nexen, a wholly-owned subsidiary of China’s CNOOC, has also shut down the site’s upgrader and reduced its SAGD facility to minimum rates.
