Fire Incident at Visakh Refinery

Mumbai, 25.05.2021

A fire incident occurred in one of the crude distillation units of HPCL‘s Visakhapatnam Refinery in the afternoon of May 25, 2021. Safety measures and firefighting systems were activated immediately. The affected unit was safely shutdown, Emergency Response Plan was activated and the fire was extinguished in a swift operation by HPCL’s Fire and Safety Department using six fire tenders. Prompt support was received from district administration, AP State Disaster Response and Fire Services Department, Naval Dock Yard, Visakh Port Trust and Hindustan Ship Yard. There was no casualties nor was anyone injured. There was no risk caused to the public.

8.33 MMTPA (1,66,000 barrels per day) capacity Visakh Refinery has three crude distillation units. The fire has occurred in the overhead system of one of the distillation unit called CDU III, which has a capacity of 3.5 MMTPA (70,000 barrels per day). The other two distillation units, all secondary processing units and other operations of the refinery are normal. HPCL stated that the affected unit will be brought to operation after carrying out the necessary inspection and repairs following due procedures at the earliest. HPCL also confirmed that there will not be any disruptions in the supply of products.