Reports: Deadly Venezuela fire out

Refinery inferno: 48 people killed in massive fire in Venezuela

Reuters/Scanpix

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Bill Lehane ,

News Wires

 28 August 2012 13:40 GMT

Venezuelan firefighters put out a blaze at the country's biggest oil refinery on Tuesday, paving the way for a restart of the facility and an investigation into the world's deadliest refinery accident in fifteen years.

Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez has said the 645,000-barrel-per-day Amuay facility should restart within two days of the fire being extinguished, Reuters reported.

A pre-dawn blast on Saturday killed 48 people, wounded dozens and flattened hundreds of homes, the news wire said.

US gasoline futures tumbled on Tuesday after soaring the day before, driven by the resolution of the Amuay blaze and the smaller-than-expected impact on U.S. Gulf Coast refineries from a tropical storm now upgraded to a hurricane.

None of Amuay's processing units were hit by the blaze, though refinery operations were shut down…

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