An explosion at a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant resulted in 27 people killed, 72 injured, and seven reported missing. The explosion destroyed three out of six liquefaction trains, damaged a nearby power plant, and led to the shutdown of a 335,000 bbl per day refinery. There was also some damage to the neighboring industrial facilities. A faulty boiler was initially blamed for the incident. Investigations, however, indicated that a large release of hydrocarbon from a cold-box exchanger was ignited upon ingestion into the boiler. Train six of the LNG complex re-started in May 2004 and trains five and 10 in September 2004. Trains 20, 30, and 40 were destroyed in the incident, representing 50% of the capacity of the LNG complex.

[ Property Damage $470 Million. Estimated Current Value $689 Million ]

Image credit: Sonatrach