TEHRAN – Iran yesterday said a fire caused by the spillage from a ruptured oil pipeline in the southwest of the country has been brought under control, state news agency IRNA reported.
“The fire has been controlled and the oil spillage prevented from spreading” to farmlands around the pipeline, the head of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province’s crisis management organisation, Khosro Kiani, told IRNA.
There were no casualties from the fire, he added.
The agency said the rupture occurred around noon on the Maroun pipeline, which was shut off to stop the spillage.
The pipeline feeds the Isfahan refinery – Iran’s second largest, with a capacity of 375,000 barrels per day, according to IRNA.
Oil ministry official Ghasem Arab Yarmohammadi told the ministry’s SHANA news agency that pipeline repairs and spillage cleanup were already underway.
It was not immediately clear what caused the rupture, but there have been several other instances of spillage from the pipeline in the area, IRNA said, mostly caused by erosion and landslides. – AFP, December 14, 2020
