Incident Report

Subject:                   India - Blast at MRPL Refinery kills 1 and injures 5

Date of Email report:   Sun 22/01/2012

Report Detail:

Mangalore, Jan 21, 2012: A worker died and five more have been injured in a blast at Mangalore Refineries and Petro-chemicals Ltd. (MRPL) at 11:30 a.m. on January 21 Saturday. The deceased is Nagesh Kulai (25), and the injured are Basheer (24) of Chokkabettu, Ashwith (23), Sirajuddin (23) of Katipalla, Mahesh Kumar, and Shrinivas (33). 

While four of them are employed by Entech Constructions, one is employed by  Ganesh Construction and Mahesh is an MRLP employee.  The injured were immediately rushed to KMC Hospital, but Nagesh died on arrival. Basheer and Siraj are seriously injured.  The causes for the blast, which took place in MRPL’s Sulphur Recovery Unit II, are not yet known.  MRPL has appointed a committee to investigate the blast and the investigative report is now being awaited.

Additional Info:

The blast occurred in the sewer pit of the Sulphur Recovery Unit-2 of the refinery. Nagesh collapsed owing to shrapnel injuries. He died on the way to the hospital. He and four others were employed by a contractor. An expert panel has been formed to look into the blast. Dakshina Kannada DC, NS Chennappa Gowda, has asked regional fire officer, HS Varadarajan, to send an investigating team to MRPL and prepare a report. Varadarajan said the MRPL did not inform him about the accident, to which he has raised serious objections.  This was the second blast in MRPL. The earlier one was at the third phase expansion site on October 18, 2011, which killed two labourers. Mangalore police commissioner, Seemanth Kumar Singh said Saturday’s accident at the MRPL was similar to the one that occurred on October 18. He said the blast occurred when workers were welding as part of maintenance operations. An engineer of the MRPL Mahesh Kumar has been booked for negligence at the workplace.  The earlier incident had occurred on a site that had no explosive matter as the plant was under construction, but this happened in a functioning plant and hence calls for more stringent action, he added.

Experts investigating the incident suspect that the leakage of sulphur oil vapour at sulphur recovery unit II (SRU) oil water separator (OWS) could have triggered the blast in MRPL. Eyewitness told police that the victim and injured employees were engaged in welding and carrying out repair work in SRU II. “Sulphur is a flammable substance and its vapours and dust are explosive,” experts told Express. Sparks from the welding work triggered a fire-cum-blast at the plant, sources in Mangalore police commissionerate told Express. The injured persons with the help of two ambulances of MRPL and 108 Ambulance were first shifted to a hospital in MRPL premises and later to KMC Hospital in Ambedkar (Jyothi) Circle.

Police sources admitting that adequate precautions had not been taken, said the spot had not been verified by safety officials and the mandatory LEL (Lower Explosive Limit) underaken before welding work, also had not been done. While contract workers alleged that safety of contract employees had been ignored MRPL DGM informed that the incident, is being investigated.

Additional Documentation: