The Hindu Business Line : IOC's Vadodara refinery unit to remain shut for 1 month

INDIAN Oil Corporation engineers could take nearly a month to get the Fluidised Catalytic Cracking Unit (FCCU) of the Vadodara refinery, which was ripped apart by a blast on Friday, back in operating condition.

"The FCC unit of the Koyali refinery will be shut for at least a month. We are still trying to figure out the extent of damage and it will take at least one month to get the unit in working condition again," a senior company official told Business Line from Vadodara.

Meanwhile, a team of experts from the Forensic Science Laboratory have determined that the blast was caused due to human error at the FCCU, which had been restarted only on Thursday after a planned maintenance shutdown.

"Presence of hydrocarbon bubbles in the slurry settler led to the blast. As per our preliminary findings, it appears to be a case of human error on the part of refinery staff," according to a source at the Laboratory. The team is likely to submit its preliminary report on Monday. An IndianOil spokesperson at Vadodara confirmed that the forensic scientists had ascertained that human error led to the blast. But he asserted that there was no possibility of a human error leading to the accident.

"We are still clueless as to what caused the blast. But regardless of what the forensic experts say, we are sure that it was not caused by any human error on the part of our staff," the IndianOil spokesperson said.

The company has also invoked its `force majeure' clause with shippers for offtake of crude meant for the 1.5 million tonnes per annum FCC unit. "We have invoked the force majeure clause to avoid paying demurrage charges to the suppliers as the crude cannot be diverted to our other refineries," the spokesperson said.

It is also not clear if the accident caused any casualties. While IndianOil maintains that the death of two of its personnel cannot be confirmed till human remains are found at the site, the local police have registered a case saying that two persons were "missing" from the refinery.

In its notice to the Bombay Stock Exchange, IndianOil said on Monday that there was no casualty in the blast. It also said, "the maintenance of supply line would not be in any way affected as the company has sufficient inventories as well as sufficient logistic plan for supply and distribution of petroleum products."

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