By Mircely Guanipa and Tibisay Romero

CARACAS, Oct 15 (Reuters) - At least 18 people including

workers, neighbors and firefighters have been reported injured

due to a fire at a crude storage tank in Venezuela's La Salina

oil terminal, sources with knowledge of the facility's

operations said on Tuesday.

The fire broke out early in the day during a storm and

was raging through the afternoon. The facility, which is

operated by state oil company PDVSA mostly for domestic use, is

located near the western city of Cabimas on the shore of Lake

Maracaibo.

"They are calculating 18 people injured including

firefighters from Cabimas, PDVSA (workers) and also locals," one

of the sources said.

PDVSA did not reply to a request for comment.

Firefighters said earlier on Tuesday they were working to

control and suffocate the balls of fire, which left a tall plume

of black smoke, according to videos seen by Reuters.

An explosion was heard by neighbors later, two of the

sources said, adding that foam applied to extinguish this type

of oil-related fires was being used.

"There was a boil over," another source said. "That's

what you see in the videos."

The nearby Bajo Grande terminal, used by PDVSA and U.S.

producer Chevron ( CVX ) to export crude and fuel, was

unaffected by the incident, sources close to operations said.

(Reporting by Mircely Guanipa, Tibisay Romero and Deisy

Buitrago; writing by Marianna Parraga;)