High alert at oil, gas units near Pak border

NEW DELHI: The government has issued a high alert for all vital oil and gas installations, particularly those within the air-strike range from Pakistan, including public and private sector refineries located in Panipat (Haryana), Bathinda (Punjab), Jamnagar and Vadinar (Gujarat), and crucial offshore producing field, the Mumbai High, officials said.

“An alert was sounded after a directive from the home ministry received on Tuesday,” a petroleum ministry official said on condition of anonymity.

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has world’s largest refinery complex in Jamnagar with total annual crude oil processing capacity of 68.2 million tonnes. Nayara Energy Ltd (formerly Essar Oil Ltd) has another 20 million tonne refinery at Vadinar, which is close to Jamnagar. Other vital installations on the high alert are state-owned Indian Oil Corporation’s 15-million tonne Panipat refinery and 11.3-million tonne Bathinda refinery, which is jointly promoted by state-run Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd and private firm, Mittal Energy Investment Pte Ltd, Singapore.

Queries sent to the petroleum ministry, RIL, Nayara Energy, IOC and Bhatinda refinery did not elicit any response.

A former chairman and managing director of a refinery said security of all vital oil stations are crucial for the country and the government has standard operating procedures (SOPS) in place. “Internal security of oil and gas installations is the responsibility of the respective managements. The government protects them from threat and does not distinguish between public and private installations,” he added on condition of anonymity.

According to a recent parliamentary standing committee report, the country has 23 refineries with a total annual processing capacity of 231 million tonnes. It has 15 gas processing plants, four liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals, 680 oil and LPG installations.