State-owned Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) was able to bring under control a localized fire outbreak at its Visakhapatnam refinery's pitch tank area on Monday.
The company sources stated that the fire was brought under control rapidly with no casualties or harm to the main processing equipment, thereby continuing to operate in a regular manner. According to the oil marketing company, The fire occurred in the pitch tank area and was swiftly controlled.
“All the Units of Refinery are working safely. HPCL remains committed to the highest standards of safety and emergency preparedness,” the refiner assured.
HPCL operates two refineries located in Mumbai and Visakhapatnam having annual capacities of 9.5 million metric tons per annum (MTPA) and 15 MTPA respectively.
The Visakh refinery is India’s first East Coast Oil refinery established in 1957 by Caltex Oil Refining India (CORIL), which had an initial capacity for processing crude oil at 0.675 MTPA. It was later upgraded to 15 MTPA through various phases. The Caltex refinery, together with its marketing operations, were taken over by nationalisation in 1976 and merged with HPCL in 1978.
