Argentine oil workers strike after refinery explosion kills three
BUENOS AIRES – Argentina’s largest oil union stated it launched an indefinite strike on Thursday after an explosion at a refinery within the western province of Neuquen killed three.
The Neuquen authorities stated a hearth broke out at daybreak in a storage tank on the New American Oil (NAO) refinery within the city of Plaza Huincul, within the middle of the province. The reason for the hearth remains to be being investigated.
“Fed up with the shortage of dedication to the lives of employees, the board of administrators of the Personal Oil and Gasoline Union of Rio Negro, Neuquen and La Pampa, determined to launch a complete strike of actions within the territorial scope of the group,” the union stated, including they’re asking for larger security measures.
The union is the biggest within the nation, representing some 25,000 employees. It covers actions in Vaca Muerta, the world’s second-largest unconventional gasoline reserve and fourth-largest oil reserve.
A union supply instructed Reuters the blast additionally burned a fourth employee, who’s out of hazard, and injured two firefighters.
Ernesto Karstan, second chief of the volunteer firefighters of Plaza Huincul, stated in an interview with native radio that they needed to evacuate after the burning tank collapsed.
“Now we have burned vehicles outdoors which have already been extinguished and the tank that was on hearth has simply collapsed,” Karstan stated within the interview. “We entered and needed to evacuate because of the collapse of the tank.”
(Report by Eliana Raszewski; Writing by Alexander Villegas; Edited by Walter Bianchi and Josie Kao)
