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| Guwahati Refinery. Picture by Eastern Projections |
Guwahati, March 6: Guwahati Refinery was forced to shut down its crude distillation unit after last night’s fire.
The Indian Oil Corporation (IOC)-owned refinery, however, said the shutdown would not lead to any shortage of LPG, kerosene, diesel or petrol.
The basic function of the crude distillation unit was to break up the crude oil to make various petroleum products. The officials at the refinery said the unit would be closed for the next three to four days. “The shutting down of the crude distillation unit will not affect the availability of petroleum products right away as we have enough stock of liquefied petroleum gas, kerosene, diesel and petrol,” senior manager (corporate communication) of the refinery, Anjana B. Sarmah, said.
She said efforts are on to make the unit operational as soon as possible. Ruling out sabotage, the refinery said preliminary investigation shows that a leak in a pump may have caused the fire. “The fire may have been caused by a leak in a pump,” Sarmah said. “All other units of the plant are running smoothly and the distillation unit will be repaired in no time.”
The fire, which broke out at the crude distillation unit around 9.27 pm, triggered panic in the thickly populated Noonmati area of the city where the refinery is located. It has a capacity to produce 20,000 barrels of oil per day and is one of IOC’s seven refineries in the country.
More than 10 fire engines battled for nearly two hours to bring the blaze under control. But firemen continued to spray water to cool the unit even after the fire was extinguished. “The fire was extinguished with the expert services of the refinery, the Central Industrial Security Force and the state fire services. Nobody was injured in the incident,” Sarmah said.
She said the extent of the damage was being assessed. Ironically, the fire broke out while the refinery was observing a weeklong fire safety week that began on Sunday.
Another refinery official said the IOC would conduct an internal probe into the incident.
