Reliance Says Refinery Fire Under Control, None Hurt (Update3)
By Archana Chaudhary and Rakteem Katakey
April 1, 2009 (Bloomberg) — Reliance Industries Ltd., India’s most valuable company, said a fire that broke out at its new refinery at Jamnagar, Gujarat, has been brought under control.
“There was a minor fire in a section of the refinery,” Reliance said in an e-mailed statement. “The rest of the refinery is operating normally and product dispatch is continuing as per schedule.”
The fire broke out at the refinery’s coker unit, district administrator V.P. Patel said in a telephone interview.
Reliance’s unit Reliance Petroleum Ltd. commissioned the 580,000 barrel a day refinery in December. Together with the parent’s adjoining 660,000 barrel a day refinery, the complex is the world’s largest crude-processing unit.
“The fire was localized, contained and brought under control within 30 minutes,” the company said. “There have been no casualties or any injuries.”
A fire had broken out at a waste storage site at the same refinery on Dec. 8.
“A fire at a coker unit should impact refinery margins as the coker helps produce high quality fuels,” said Niraj Mansingka, analyst at Mumbai-based Edelweiss Capital Ltd. “The global oil markets may however not really be affected by this.”
Crude oil for May delivery fell 3.4 percent to $47.97 a barrel at 10:12 a.m. in New York.
To contact the reporters on this story: Archana Chaudhary in Mumbai at achaudhary2@bloomberg.net; Rakteem Katakey in New Delhi at rkatakey@bloomberg.net. Last Updated: April 1, 2009 10:20 EDT