Update on Industrial Incident at Singapore Refinery

Media contact:
Karen Wong
DID: 6885-8275
Mobile: 9692-4132  

29 March 2011,6pm (Singapore time)

SINGAPORE – ExxonMobil deeply regrets that one worker has died and another has been hurt in an incident at its Singapore Refinery at about 7.30pm last night.

The two workers, both contractors, were found unconscious and were sent to hospital. Regrettably, one of them succumbed to his injuries and died at about 9 pm. The other worker remains in critical condition and we are monitoring his condition closely. 

The family of the deceased worker, Dakshinamoorthy Vellaisamy, 34, who was a specialist technician, has been notified.

Both the workers are employees of Dialog Systems Private Limited, and had been carrying out maintenance works in an enclosed space filled with nitrogen, when they were discovered to be unconscious.

Singapore Refinery Manager Darrin Talley said: “We are greatly saddened by this tragic event and express our deepest sympathy to the families of those affected in this incident. We are taking a serious view of this incident. A full investigation is underway, to determine the cause of the incident.”

Immediately after the incident, work relating to the turnaround at the Jurong Refinery was suspended for safety reasons. However, most of the maintenance work which is not directly related to the incident, is resuming.

We are cooperating fully with the authorities in their investigations into the incident.

About Singapore Refinery

The Singapore Refinery consists of two operating sites – one on the mainland at Pioneer Road, and the other on Jurong Island (Pulau Ayer Chawan). It has a pipestill capacity of 605,000 barrels per day and manufactures a wide range of fuels, lubricant basestocks and specialty products that are marketed both within Singapore and exported to countries in Asia Pacific. It also provides advantaged feedstock to the steam cracker and aromatics plants.