KOCHI: Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), the second-largest Indian Oil marketing company, will supply medical oxygen to government hospitals due to the rising number of Covid-19 cases. Daily, around 1.5 tonnes of oxygen will be supplied to hospitals. Last year, the company had supplied around 40 tonnes of medical oxygen when the average daily cases had risen in October-November.
The build-own-operate unit of Kochi Refinery has a provision to produce and store liquid oxygen of 99.7 per cent purity. Currently, the company has around 20 tonnes of storage of oxygen from which the government hospitals will be supplied. This supply shall be free of cost.
With the average daily cases of Covid-19 rising again, the oxygen demand has significantly increased. In fact, in most parts of the country, the cases are hitting new peak disrupting the demand-supply chain for medical oxygen.