Smoldering Petroleum Coke Pile Discovered at St. Croix Refinery

Experts in petroleum coke handling are on the ground at Port Hamilton Refining and Transportation on St. Croix after a smoldering pile of the material was discovered early Thursday, the company announced Sunday.

Around 4:20 a.m. on Thursday, an automatic alarm system was activated inside one of the coke storage domes at the facility, formerly known as the Limetree Bay Refinery, the company said. A pile of petroleum coke was slowly smoldering, it said.

Petroleum coke is a solid fuel that resembles charcoal, Port Hamilton said.

“Employees immediately responded and set up fire hose water spray nozzles inside the coke dome to cool the material. The water is being sprayed 24 hours a day and experts in petroleum coke handling were flown in on Friday to help with the logistics of completely suppressing the smoldering pile of petroleum coke safely and expeditiously,” according to the release.