Vizag: Thick smoke from oil refinery triggers fresh panic, no casualties reported

Triggering a fresh wave of panic among locals, dense plumes of smoke were seen coming from Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited plant in Vishakhapatnam on Wednesday, May 21.

According to reports, smoke was diffused from Crude Distillation Unit (CDU) at HPCL, which company clarified was due to “technical snag” and “temperature issues”. situation was swiftly brought under control by people at site,  operations were resumed as rmal and casualties have been reported. 

recent incident at HPCL was viewed with heightened dre because of recent styrene gas leak from an LG Polymers plant in city that killed at least 12 people and h injured over 600. But, HPCL PRO Kalidas told ANI that situation is currently restrained. 

Kalidas said, "Due to a technical snag and temperature issues plant-3 restarted, thick smoke came out when plant was started. Immediately a team of HPCL technical swung into action and took immediate measures to stop smoke, catalyst backup, situation under controlled and resumed operations."

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Vizag gas leak

While at HPCL plant situation did t escalate into ar disaster, in latest development of previous Vizag gas leak, Supreme Court has denied interfering with order issued by National Green Tribunal (NGT) directing LG Polymers to deposit Rs 50 crores for dam caused by harmful styrene gas. NGT h also set up a five-member committee under leership of former Andhra Presh High Court Judge B Seshasayana Reddy to visit site of accident and submit a report. 

Meanwhile, work at plant has been put on hold after incident which killed at least a dozen of its workers. LG Polymers is a step-down firm of South Korean Petro giant LG Chem and it has said in a statement that transportation of its inventory of Styrene Momer (SM) from Visakhapatnam to South Korea stands completed. Managing Director Jeong Sunkey has reportedly ensured that more SM is left at plant in Vizag. 

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