LPG supply not to be hit by refinery fire

New Delhi, Oct 25 (UNI) The supply of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) would not be hit by the blaze at the Reliance Refinery at Jamnagar in Gujarat even as the government is taking tight measures to ensure there is no shortage of cooking fuel to the consumers across the country.

The government has even said that in an eventuality of a shortage, they would import the fuel to bridge any demand-supply gap.

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) Chairman, Mukesh Ambani assured Petroleum Minister Murli Deora later in the day that the domestic supply of LPG, one of the by-products from the refinery, will not be hit as the fire is only in an islotaed secondary unit.

The fire broke out this morning at about 10.40 A M at one of the secondary processing units (VGO Hydrotreater - II) of the refinery at Jamnagar.

One of the Reliance personnel was injured seriously. There were no other casualties. The fire had been brought under control by Reliance Plant and Fire Fighting personnel in less than two hours.

The exact extent of damage to the VGO Hydrotreater II unit, which is one of the 40 units in the refinery complex, is being assessed, company sources said.

As a pre cautionary measure, the neighbouring Diesel Hydrotreating Unit II has been shut down safely. ''We expect to re-start the same shortly. All other refinery units, including both the crude units and petrochemical units, are operating normally,'' Reliance sources said.

Jamnagar refinery is India's largest oil refinery and after the capacity expansion Reliance would become the country's largest refinery surpassing state-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC).

It is also the only refinery in the country which is able to process a wide variety of crudes - from very light to very heavy (from 18 to 45 degree API) and from sweet to very heavy (with sulphur content from 0 to 4.5 percent).

The Jamnagar refinery currently produces 11 million tonnes of diesel, 4 million tonnes of naphtha and petrol each, 3.6 million tonnes of jet/avaition turbine fuel/superior kerosene oil, 2.3 million tonnes of LPG, 2.7 million tonnes of reformate and 2.5 million tonnes of petroleum coke.

In 2004-05, Reliance exported 10.2 million tonnes of petroleum products, up from 7.5 million tonnes in the previous year.

The company started work on the Rs 9,700 crore refinery project in 1996 and completed it in less than 30 months. The original construction of the refinery was lead by Bechtel. Construction was carried out by a number of Indian companies such as Larsen&Toubro (L&T), Dodsal, Punj Lloyd, Trafalgar House and Simplex.

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