Seven injured in fire at Russia's Omsk oil refinery, production continues

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Seven people were in hospital, with one in a serious condition, after a fire at Russia's Omsk oil refinery, the local governor said on Monday, although the plant said it was operating as normal and production plans would not be affected.

"The fire at the Omsk refinery is under control. The plant's automatic safety system detected a fire in technological equipment ... The company is operating as usual," the refinery - Russia's largest - said in a statement.

It later said that the fire had been contained at the plant, which accounts for some 8% of Russia's total oil refining volume.

Vitaly Khotsenko, the local governor, said on the Telegram messaging app that seven people were hospitalised, with one of them in a serious condition.

The plant, controlled by Gazprom Neft, said the fire would not affect its production plan, which it would be able to deliver thanks to additional production capacity.

Some reports on social media said a huge explosion was heard across several districts of the west Siberia city, located around 2,700 km (1,700 miles) east of Moscow.

Two sources familiar with the details said a crude distillation unit, CDU-11, one of two largest primary refining units at the plant, was affected by the fire.

Another primary unit, CDU-10, was already idle due to fire in early August. CDU-10 and CDU-11 each have a production capacity of around 8.6 million metric tons per year.

The cause of the fire was not immediately clear. Several Russian oil refineries have been targeted by Ukrainian drone attacks.

The Omsk refinery processed more than 21 million metric tons (420,000 barrels per day) of crude oil in 2022.

(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Louise Heavens and Mark Potter, Kirsten Donovan)