Firefighters are struggling to put out a blaze that began on Tuesday at Algeria's Skikda oil terminal, a fire department official said, and oil traders said Algeria's biggest refinery was closed. The state news agency in neighbouring Morocco, MAP, reported that the fire killed two people and wounded four others. Two of the injured were in a critical condition. "Our team is there, the fire has not been extinguished yet," the fire department source told Reuters. Oil traders said the 335,000 barrels-per-day Skikda refinery on Algeria's Mediterranean coast had been shut following the blast, but cargoes of refined oil products continued to load for the time being. The fire started on Tuesday in a crude oil storage tank, according to state-owned oil company Sonatrach. A Sonatrach official told Reuters the blaze was preceded by an explosion at a gas storage tank at the refinery. The Skikda refinery is an important supplier of naphtha and low sulphur fuel oil to export markets in Europe, Asia and the United States. An explosion in January 2004 killed 23 people and destroyed three liquefied natural gas units. "It's fine to say loadings are proceeding because they might have product still in tanks, but the question in the market is what next," an oil trader said.
