IOC to spend Rs 600 cr on fire safety
New Delhi   13-Sep-2011

IndianOil (IOC) will spend about Rs 600 crore to upgrade fire safety equipment across its installations. This is being done after a directive from the Oil Industry Safety Directorate (OISD) to raise standards of fire safety. OISD has revised safety norms keeping in view a major fire accident at the IOC depot near Jaipur that claimed 11 lives and led to wastage of nearly 60,000 kilo litre of petroleum products in 2009. “The risk-perception has been revised after the Jaipur incident. The existing safety norms would be supplemented,” KK Jha, director (pipelines) of IOC said.

OISD has revised STD-117 norms that are mandatory for oil marketing companies. As per revised norms, volume of water stored in sites has to be doubled and protection system on tanks is to be equipped with hollow impoline tubes, among others.

“The board has approved Rs 586 crore for the job,” Jha said. The pipelines division will perform the task. The company would have to buy new equipment for Rs 32 crore through single tender process. Moreover, there would be an additional expenditure of Rs 20 crore to maintain these facilities every year.

A committee headed by former chairman of Hindustan Petroleum (HPCL), M B Lal, found that petrol leakage through a valve during transfer from storage tank caused the fire at Jaipur depot. The leakage was due to gross negligence of crew at the depot. Also, non-availability of a self contained breathing apparatus and fire suits left the immediate response team helpless.

Other reasons behind the incident include absence of site specific written operating procedures, absence of leak stopping devices from a remote location and insufficient understanding of hazards, risks and consequences, the panel had said.