Fire shutters unit at IOC’s Paradip refinery

Dec. 12, 2017
Indian Oil Corp. Ltd. (IOC) is investigating the cause of a fire that broke out on Dec. 12 in a major processing unit of its 15 million-tonne/year full-conversion refinery at Paradip in India’s state of Odisha on the country’s northeastern coast.

Indian Oil Corp. Ltd. (IOC) is investigating the cause of a fire that broke out on Dec. 12 in a major processing unit of its 15 million-tonne/year full-conversion refinery at Paradip in India’s state of Odisha on the country’s northeastern coast.

The fire, which occurred in the refinery’s 4.17-4.27 million-tpy INDMAX fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) unit, was immediately extinguished by the manufacturing site’s fire and safety team, with no injuries to personnel reported, IOC said.

A cause of the fire is under investigation, but all other units at the refinery remain in normal operation, the operator said.

IOC revealed no other details regarding the incident, nor did it provide a timeframe for the estimated restart of the fire-impacted unit.

The Indian operator entered the INDMAX unit into operation in late 2015 (OGJ Online, Apr. 22, 2016).

Earlier this year, IOC, which controls 11 of India’s 23 refineries, imported its first 2 million-bbl cargo of US high-sulfur Mars crude oil from South Louisiana for delivery to and processing at the Paradip refinery as part of a plan to diversify its crude sources and help boost the country’s energy security (OGJ Online, Aug. 14, 2017).

Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].