Oil company on fire in the city of Suez (Photo:AP)
Some 3000 employees of the state-owned Nasr Oil Company (NOC) located in the Egyptian canal city of Suez returned to their jobs Sunday following a six-day work stoppage due to a factory fire.
"Employees are back to work. The situation at the company is safe and all the equipment and oil tanks have been checked," said NOC Chairman Kamel Saafan.
The fire, which erupted on Saturday in one of the company's oil tanks, killed one worker and one fire fighter and injured several others. The exact cause of the blaze remains unknown.
Parliament's industry and energy committee on Sunday reportedly began discussions of the issue. According to committee vice-president Mostafa Mohamed Mostafa, the company, too, began internal discussions of the issue on Sunday.
"This isn't the first time for a blaze to erupt at an oil company or in Suez," said Mostafa. "The series of recent fires points to the serious lack of industrial security at Egyptian oil companies."
Mostafa added that Egypt's petroleum minister would soon face questioning on the issue in parliament.
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