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Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Arifin Tasrif (center) at a press briefing in Indramayu, West Java, on Saturday (April 3, 2021). (ANTARA/Khaerul Izan)

State-owned oil and gas firm Pertamina, in cooperation with an international agency, is investigating the cause of a fire that engulfed the company's refinery in Balongan, Indramayu district, West Java, early this week.

The international agency is expected to reveal what happened at the oil refinery and what led to the fire at its four storage units, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Arifin Tasrif informed here on Saturday.

"We also want (the results of the) study from the international agency which handles occupational accidents like (the one that happened) now," he said.Looking ahead, Pertamina must assess and evaluate its current working system applied to all its oil refineries, he added.

The evaluation is needed to prevent similar incidents from happening at the company's oil refineries in future, he said adding, the fire must serve as a lesson for Pertamina.

The minister had said earlier that the fire that engulfed Pertamina's refinery had been fully extinguished, and the company was conducting a cooling down process.

"Alhamdulillah (thank God), the fire has been put out," Tasrif remarked, here on Saturday.According to the minister, the fire initially erupted shortly after midnight on Monday (March 29, 2021) and was put out in all four affected storage units on Wednesday (March 31, 2021). However, hours later, the fire re-surfaced in the units, he informed.

The fire broke out for the second time when the remaining hot oil came in direct contact with the air, Tasrif explained.

The fire forced Pertamina to shut the plant and evacuate about 950 nearby residents. Six were offered treatment at the hospital, the company informed.According to the company, seven percent of the refinery's 1.35 million kiloliters (KL) of storage capacity was affected by the fire, and the tanks that caught fire were holding some 23 thousand KL of gasoline.

However, it assured that national fuel stocks remained secure, and any shortage of fuel to Jakarta, which Balongan supplies, could be made up by refineries in Cilacap and Tuban//ANT