Fourteen people died and about 100 were injured, some seriously, on Wednesday by a powerful explosion at a British Petroleum (BP) oil refinery in Texas. BP said it could not immediately pinpoint the cause of the blast at the giant 470,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) Texas City facility, the third largest in the United States. But it has ruled out terrorism.

?We have no reason to believe this was anything caused by an outside agent,? said company spokesman Hugh Depland. ?We believe 14 people lost their lives as a result of the fire?, said BP site director Don Parus. The explosion comes just a year after another blast rocked the same refinery. On March 30, 2004, a large explosion and fire occurred in a gasoline-making unit but there were no injuries.

That accident resulted in citations for 14 alleged violations from the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration. OSHA immediately began in an investigation into the latest incident, BP, headquartered in London, said. Company officials and area health officials said that of the 100 hurt in Wednesday?s accident, some were in critical condition. Plant spokesman Bill Stephens said more than 70 of the injured had been working in the refinery at the time of the explosion at 1320 local time (1920 GMT). Others were outside the complex and hurt by flying glass and falling ceiling tiles. The blaze was extinguished after 2 hours. The huge blast rattled buildings and broke windows for miles around and sent residents of the heavily industrialized town beside Galveston Bay scurrying for cover.