Explosion rocks refinery in Germany's Bavaria Province

An explosion at an oil refinery in southern Germany late on January 16 injured four people and triggered a fire, according to police reports. The incident occurred at the Bayernoil refinery in Neustadt an der Donau, north of Munich, around midnight local time.

Emergency services responded with a significant deployment of fire brigades to contain the blaze. The cause of the explosion and the extent of the damage remain under investigation, police said.

Bayernoil confirmed the fire erupted in a processing unit at the facility, which has since been shut down with safety protocols activated. The building where the fire began was allowed to burn down in a controlled manner, authorities stated.

Residents in the nearby Kelheim district were advised to stay indoors and keep windows and doors closed overnight as a precaution. An all-clear was issued early on January 17.

The Bayernoil refinery processes crude oil supplied from Trieste, Italy, producing flammable gases such as propane and butane, alongside gasoline, diesel and heating oil for supply to Bavaria and northern Austria. The company also operates a similar site in Vohburg an der Donau, Bavaria. Combined, the two facilities have a oil throughput capacity of 10.3mn tonnes per year (tpy), or 205,000 bpd.

The main owner of Bayernoil is Swiss-based Varo Energy, whose investors include private equity firm Carlyle Group and global commodities trader Vitol, holding a 51.4% stake. A further 20% of the refinery is held by Italy’s Eni and 28.6% by Russia’s Rosneft. Rosneft’s share along with its other oil assets in Germany have been placed under the trust management of the German government. Rosneft is required to find a buyer for the assets, which will otherwise be nationalised, but the deadline for agreeing a sale has been repeatedly postponed and the trusteeship extended.

A fire also broke out at the Bavernoil refinery in October, at a crude distillation plant at the Neustadt site, but was quickly extinguished by the site’s internal fire brigade. The incident caused injuries to a contractor on site who was transported to hospital in Ingolstadt, but the fire presented no threat to surrounding residents.