Photo: AFP

RELIANCE UNIT HIT: Smoke billowing from a Reliance Industries refinery at Jamnagar, some 400 km west of Ahmedabad, on Wednesday.

New Delhi: India has begun scouting for additional LPG supplies to make up for the shortfall due to the fire on Wednesday that affected a crude processing unit at the Reliance Industries' refinery in Jamnagar. Petroleum Minister Murli Deora said Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have been asked to provide extra quantities of LPG. Qatar, he said, does not have more LPG available at present. Therefore, it has been decided to approach other West Asian countries with which India already has term contracts for LPG import.

Mr. Deora told The Hindu here on Wednesday that the Indian Oil Corporation has immediately contracted for about one lakh tonnes of LPG. This is expected to ease the situation as far as availability is concerned.

Mr. Deora said that the vacuum crude oil processing unit at the Reliance refinery produces 2,500 tonnes of LPG a day. Though RIL Chairman Mukesh Ambani had assured him that the other three units were still operating, as a measure of abundant precaution, it had been decided to import more quantities of LPG from countries such as Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

Mr. Deora has been in touch with Mr. Ambani from the time the news broke about the fire. The RIL chief apparently assured him that production from the affected unit would be resumed quickly and the supply situation might not be affected at all. He also pointed out that the refinery has "very good arrangements" to deal with such disasters.

Unfortunately, one person died in the fire and another was injured. The fire was reported to have been doused quickly.

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