Mumbai: Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has shut one of its vacuum distillation units at Haldia refinery following a minor incident of fire, the country’s top refiner said on Friday.
The shutdown has not affected the refinery’s operations and production.
“The VDU (vacuum distillation unit) is under safety checks and will resume operations shortly,” the state-owned company said, adding that there were no injuries or casualties in the accident.
A vacuum distillation unit is used to refine heavy hydrocarbons which are left behind after a major fraction of crude oil.”The incident took place due to auto-ignition of leaked product. It was quickly brought under control and extinguished,” it said.
A senior company official stationed at the 7.5-mtpa refinery in West Bengal said that the fire was caused due to failure of one of the pumps.
The crude unit has been isolated and is expected to resume operation from Saturday, the source said, adding that the remaining units at the plant were operating normally. The fire took place on Thursday evening, IOC said in a statement.
