Malaysia's Petronas reports fire at LNG complex in Bintulu, operations unaffected

FILE PHOTO: A Petronas logo at their office in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia August 15, 2017. REUTERS/Lai Seng Sin/File Photo

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia's state energy firm Petronas said a fire broke out at its massive liquefied natural gas (LNG) complex in Bintulu on Tuesday but that operations were unaffected.

The fire occurred at the sea-cooling water outfall channel located outside the complex's process area, and was successfully extinguished, Petronas said in a statement on Wednesday.

Five contractors sustained injuries in the incident and were sent to hospital for treatment. They have all been discharged, the company said.

An investigation to determine the cause of the incident has been opened, it said.

The Bintulu plant, located in the eastern Malaysian state of Sarawak, has a production capacity of about 30 million tonnes per annum and supplies customers in Japan and China, among others.

The fire comes as LNG prices have surged due to a global supply crunch. Asian spot LNG prices spiked to over $32 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) on Tuesday, the third highest on record.

(Reporting by A. Ananthalakshmi in Kuala Lumpur and Jessica Jaganathan in Singapore; Editing by Ed Davies)

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