Uzbekistan, Tashkent, 11 July / Trend , corr T. Zhukov/ The largest Bukhara oil refinery in Uzbekistan is operating on normal conditions, press service of Uzbekneftgaz holding said to Trend . The company has not suffered from the explosion in Kagan on 10 July.
The Bukhara oil refinery is located in the center of Karaulbazar city 25km south of Kagan where fire took place on 10 July and was followed by the detonation of ammunition in the military depot for helicopters. The refinery meets 80% of demand for petroleum and diesel fuel in Uzbekistan. Moreover, the refinery also produces aviation fuel for the state-owned company.
The first production line of the Bukhara Oil Refinery was launched in 1997. The refinery was completely constructed by the consortium including Technip (France) and Marubeni-JGC ( Japan). The construction of the refinery was financed in part - $100mln by the Uzbek government and $300mln by the export and credit agencies of France, US and Japan. The target capacity of the oil refinery is 2.5mln tons of oil products a year.
According to the official report, the blast in Kagan killed three leaving 21 people wounded. The strong blast even shattered the windows of the houses in Bukhara suburbs 14km from the blast.
The Emergency Situations Department of Bukhara said to Trend that the last four explosions in the burning ammunition depot took place at 04:30 p.m. local time. The military depot and the surrounding premises were destroyed as a result of the blast. The building of the local railway station and hospital has been seriously damaged.
The population in this area is being evacuated. The government expects possible explosion of the remaining ammunition. The state commission of the government officials, National Security Service, Prospector Generals, Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Emergency Situations and Interior Ministry has been set up to investigate the explosion.
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