Blast Kills One at India’s Mangalore Refinery, Disrupting Fuel Exports
The incident injured 12 people and forced the company to cancel spot tenders for diesel, jet fuel and reformate.
One worker was killed and 12 people were injured after a blast damaged a processing unit at Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd. in southern India, disrupting planned fuel exports and adding pressure to regional supplies.
The incident occurred at about 2:45 a.m. ET (06:45 UTC) Sept. 30 in the refinery’s Coker Hydrotreater Unit, after a high-pressure Cold Separator ruptured. The fire was extinguished by about 5:17 a.m. ET (09:17 UTC), and the affected unit was isolated.
MRPL canceled three spot export tenders for diesel, jet fuel and reformate. Its Mangaluru refinery has reported capacity of 300,000 barrels per day.
The final duration of the unit’s outage and any effect on overall refinery output have not been established. The refinery processes fuel streams for domestic and export markets, making the canceled shipments an immediate supply concern as diesel availability remains tight in the region.
