A day after the fire incident at the HPCL Rajasthan Refinery Limited, the government on Tuesday said it has constituted a four-member committee to investigate the cause of the blaze.
The panel is headed by former Managing Director of Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL), M. Venkatesh. According to Sujata Sharma, Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, the investigation team has already reached Barmer in Rajasthan, where the refinery is located.
The refinery, situated at Pachpadra in Balotra, has seen an investment of over Rs79,450 crore and is considered a major project in India’s energy and petrochemical sector. It is a joint venture between Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) and the Government of Rajasthan. The facility has a refining capacity of 9 million metric tonnes per annum (MMTPA) and a petrochemical capacity of 2.4 MMTPA.
Once fully operational, the refinery will produce petrol and diesel along with a range of petrochemical products, including polypropylene, linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE), high-density polyethylene (HDPE), benzene, toluene, and butadiene. It has a Nelson Complexity Index of 17.0 and petrochemical yields exceeding 26%, placing it among globally competitive and efficient refineries.
In a statement, HPCL said the fire was caused by a leakage of hydrocarbons from one of the valves or flanges in the heat exchanger circuit. The company added that all units are structurally safe and unaffected, and no other section of the refinery has suffered any damage.
Mahesh Mangal, Additional Secretary at the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, said that around 14 India-flagged vessels are currently stranded on the western side of the Strait of Hormuz.