(Adds comment from police spokesman)
By Jeffrey Hodgson
TORONTO, Jan 15 (Reuters) - One person was killed and a
second was injured in an explosion at Nexen Energy's Long Lake
oil sands facility south of Fort McMurray, Alberta, on Friday,
the company said.
The injured person was in critical condition, a police
spokesman said. Other personnel were accounted for after the
explosion, the unit of China's CNOOC Ltd 0883.HK said in a
statement.
"The affected facility has been shut down and we are
stabilizing the scene. There is no immediate danger to the
neighboring communities or personnel still on site," the company
said.
The early indication is that the explosion happened in the
facility's hydrocracker, said Staff Sgt Jeremie Landry, a
spokesman for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
"There was an explosion as well as a fire," he said.
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 company said regulators had been notified. A company
spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for
additional details.
The incident comes after Nexen last July discovered a
pipeline leak near the site that caused one of North America's
largest oil-related spills on land.
The Alberta Energy Regulator last August ordered Nexen to
shut 95 pipelines at the Long Lake facility as part of an
investigation into the spill. It resumed full production in
September.
The Long Lake facility was producing about 50,000 barrels a
day of synthetic crude before the July spill.
(With additional reporting by Nia Williams in Calgary; Editing
by Sandra Maler and Stephen Coates)