Petrol Stop

‘Ulfa strike’ leads to fire at IOC refinery

Tuesday, 10 January 2012

11 Jan 2012;timesofindia.indiatimes.com:NEW DELHI: A major fire broke out on Tuesday at IndianOil Corporation's Guwahati refinery but timely activation of safety drill averted any major damage to the plant or human casualty, top company executives said. The fire started early morning after "slop" - off-spec products that are stored for refining again - leaked from a storage tank. Executives said 2-3 people were hospitalised, "possibly for injuries from smoke", but could not give details of their condition. The fire was doused by evening and operations at the refinery were not affected. The executives also said they could not comment on what caused the fire, saying they were still waiting for details. But agency reports quoting district administration officials blamed electrical sparks and leakage in the slop-carrying pipeline for the fire. Some reports in the local media said separatist group Ulfa claimed responsibility for the incident but this could not be independently verified. The reports also said several houses that were in the vicinity were damaged but again there was no casualty. A senior executive familiar with refining operations said the fire was limited as slop flowed into dykes that are dug around storage tanks to contain spread of inflammable material in case of a spill.