Exxon Beaumont refinery worker hit by pipe, dies: sources
HOUSTON (Reuters) - A contract worker was killed after being struck by a piece of pipe while working on a crude unit overhaul early on Wednesday morning at Exxon Mobil Corp's Beaumont, Texas refinery, two sources familiar with the incident said.
Exxon said earlier on Wednesday that a contractor was fatally injured at the refinery at about 12:30 a.m. CDT (0530 GMT).
"We are greatly saddened by this and express our deepest sympathy to his family and his coworkers," said Exxon spokesman Todd Spitler.
Investigators were just beginning the work of determining how the man was injured, but the sources said it appeared he was crushed between two pieces of pipe.
The sources said the man was an employee of AltairStrickland, a company specializing in refinery and petrochemical plant overhauls with offices in the Houston suburb of Deer Park, Texas.
An AltairStrickland representative was not immediately available on Wednesday.
Exxon shut the 110,000 barrel per day (bpd) crude distillation unit at the 344,600 bpd Beaumont refinery on April 22 for a revamp expected to finish by June 30.
The work is to prepare the unit for an expansion with eventual addition of a third CDU that would at least double the Beaumont refinery's capacity.
CDUs do the initial refining of crude oil coming into a refinery and provide feedstock for all other units.
(Reporting by Erwin Seba in Houston Vijaykumar Vedala in Bengaluru; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli)
