By David Alire Garcia and Erwin Seba
MEXICO CITY/HOUSTON (Reuters) -Pemex’s Deer Park oil refinery near Houston discharged 43,500 pounds of highly toxic hydrogen sulfide gas over more than seven hours in a deadly incident earlier this week, according to the Mexican state-owned company’s disclosure to a Texas regulator.
The accident on Thursday killed two contract workers while injuring 35 others during work on a unit at the refinery.
According to Pemex’s initial report to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the Oct. 10 leak continued for 7 hours and 40 minutes. Over the course of the incident, the hydrogen sulfide discharge exceeded more than 800 times the hourly emission limit for the dangerous gas of 6.89 pounds per hour.
The data from the Texas regulator is dated Oct. 11.
The refinery, which features a crude processing capacity of 312,500 barrels per day, will operate this weekend at a “low level” as Pemex investigates the cause of the leak, the company said late on Friday in a statement.