One person died and several others were injured in an explosion at the port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands on Thursday, emergency officials said. The blast occurred at around 11:30 a.m. (0930 GMT) at a storage facility for petroleum products in the Europoort industrial section, though some reports described it simply as being at the port or at a company in Europoort.
The facility where the explosion occurred has been identified by multiple sources as a refinery and fuel terminal operated by Gunvor Energy. Gunvor Energy reported an 'incident' during maintenance work on a storage tank, and a spokesperson for the company said: 'We are cooperating with local authorities.' The company added that an incident had occurred during maintenance work on a storage tank, and some reports indicated that maintenance work had been carried out on pipes at the facility, though this has not been universally confirmed.
One report specifies that six people were injured in the blast, while others say several.
The cause of the explosion remains unclear and is under investigation. Police said there was no immediate sign of sabotage and that all possible scenarios were under investigation. A police spokesperson, named in one account as Daan Valkenburg, said investigators were considering all possible causes and had not yet reached a conclusion. Forensic investigators and the Dutch labour inspectorate were sent to the scene, where a damaged wall and signs of an explosion on a storage tank were visible.
A power outage occurred at the port on Thursday, with a transformer catching fire. Several companies halted operations and evacuated workers due to the outage. Police and local safety authorities said they are investigating whether the outage and the explosion were linked, though one report indicated that police had concluded the blackout was not linked to the explosion. This discrepancy has not been reconciled.
Emergency services deployed an ambulance helicopter to the scene, and fire crews were standing by at the port. Shell reported that the explosion did not affect its operations at the port, and the Rotterdam port authorities said LNG terminals were not affected. ExxonMobil halted operations at its Rotterdam refinery due to the power outage, according to one source citing Wood Mackenzie; the refinery has a daily capacity of 191,000 barrels.
The port of Rotterdam is Europe's largest, comprising oil refineries, liquefied natural gas terminals, and multiple petrochemical facilities. Shell, ExxonMobil, BP, and Gunvor Energy are among the energy majors operating there. One report mentioned that a maintenance team had been working on a section of pipes when the explosion occurred, though this detail is attributed to Dutch broadcaster NOS in some accounts.
