Major oil and gas facilities in the northern Chinese port city of Tianjin were little affected by a massive chemicals blast at a nearby container port, industry officials said on Thursday, but some iron ore deliveries had been disrupted.

Two massive explosions caused by flammable goods ripped through an industrial area in the northeast Chinese port city of Tianjin late on Wednesday, killing 17 people and injuring as many as 400, official Chinese media reported.

Oil and gas facilities, including the 270,000 barrels-per-day Tianjin refinery operated by Sinopec Corp (0386.HK) and a 2 million tonne-per-year floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal run by CNOOC were operating normally, company and industry sources said.

"It's a massive disaster that seemed to concentrate in the container port part of the much larger Tianjin port, but fortunately the larger oil and gas facilities are not close by," said a Beijing-based oil trader.

A Sinopec Corp media official confirmed that its Tianjin refinery, which is located about 45 km (28 miles) from the affected zone, was running normally. The refinery, one of the largest in northern China, handles its crude oil and fuel vessels at Nanjiang port, a separate part of the Tianjin port.

Traders said there had been some disruption to iron ore deliveries, which may have contributed to a rise in Dalian futures prices DCIOcv1 for the steel ingredient on Thursday.

"There is some impact and we can't get our stocks right now," said an official responsible for purchasing iron ore at a Chinese steel mill.

Some parts of the port's iron ore discharging berth, which was not far from the explosion site, had halted operations, added a Shanghai-based iron ore trader. About 7 million tonnes of iron ore are stored at these parts of the Tianjin port, he said.

"There's a lot of floating articles in the air and transportation has been restricted. If you want to take delivery from the port, you will be affected," the trader said.

Source: www.reuters.com

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