Incident Report

Subject:                     Second Mexico refinery worker dies after Tues fire

Date of Email report:   Sun 26/09/2010

Report Detail:

            
MEXICO CITY, Sept 9 (Reuters) - A worker badly burned in a explosion and fire on Tuesday at Mexico's 275,000 barrel-per-day Cadereyta refinery died of his injuries overnight, state oil monopoly Pemex said on Thursday. One worker was killed instantly and 10 others were injured on Tuesday when a compressor in the coker gas oil hydrotreater leaked, triggering the accident.  Rodolfo Montemayor, a 49-year-old specialist operator at the refinery who suffered burns on 80 percent of his body, died in a Pemex [PEMX.UL] hospital early Thursday morning.  A third worker who was also severely burned has been moved to a hospital in Mexico City, Pemex said.  Pemex shut the 40,000-bpd hydrotreater and the associated 54,000-bpd coker at the refinery following the accident.  Oil traders pushed up fuel prices in the wake of the blast on bets that Mexico, already the biggest importer of U.S. fuel, would increase purchases to make up for lost production.  However a Pemex source told Reuters repairs to the hydrotreater would likely be completed within two weeks. Pemex later said the coker would restart on Saturday, Sept. 11 and that any impact on gasoline or ultra-low sulfur diesel production would be minimal.  Cadereyta is Mexico's third-largest refinery by distillation capacity and its most modern. Located near the country's business capital of Monterrey, the refinery is a major producer of clean diesel and gasoline. (Reporting by Robert Campbell; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)