Explosion at Shell’s Scotford refinery

Emergency crews responded to an explosion and fire at Shell’s Scotford refinery in Alberta on Monday, a company spokeswoman said. There were no reported injuries.

The Scotford facility houses a 100,000 barrel-per-day refinery and a 255,000 bpd oil sands upgrader.

Local media reported flames and a large plume of black smoke coming from the refinery.

Shell spokeswoman Tara Lemay said the fire broke out around 8:45 a.m. local time and employees were being moved away from the incident as a safety precaution. Roadblocks have been set up at the entrances to the Scotford site and on roads nearby.

The company has notified the Alberta Energy Regulator, Lemay added. She did not immediately give any details about the impact on production.

(Reporting by Nia Williams in Calgary and Harshith Aranya in Bengaluru Editing by Phil Berlowitz)