MOSCOW (MRC) -- A major fire broke out at the naphtha cracker unit of the Haldia Petrochemicals Limited here on Friday injuring 15 people, reported The Times of India with reference to a senior police officer's statement.
The blaze that broke out at 11.15 am, was yet to be brought under control, Purba Medinipur Superintendent of Police V Solomon Nesakumar said.
The injured have been rushed to a nearby hospital, he said.
The condition of three of the injured is "very serious", while the rest have suffered "moderate burns" the SP said.
Some of the injured were being brought to Kolkata for treatment, he said.
The police officer could not say whether workers are trapped inside the unit.
District Magistrate Partha Ghosh said, "I am not aware of the incident. I am busy with other things."
As MRC informed before, Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd (HPL) resumed production at its cracker and downstream plants following a maintenance turnaround on 9-10 June, 2018. The complex was shut on May 10, 2018 for a period of about 20-25 days. Located at Haldia in the eastern Indian state of west Bengal, the complex can produce 700,000 mt/year of ethylene and 350,000 mt/year of propylene and provides feedstock to a 330,000 mt/year high density PE plant, a 370,000 mt/year HDPE/linear low PE swing plant and a 350,000 mt/year polypropylene unit.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polyprolypele (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,255,800 tonnes in the first seven months of 2019, up by 9% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. At the same time, the estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 796,120 tonnes in January-July 2019, up by 11% year on year. Shipments of PP block copolymer and homopolymer PP increased.
Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd is a modern naphtha based petrochemical complex at Haldia, West Bengal, India. Haldia has played the role of a catalyst in emergence of more than 500 downstream processing industries in West Bengal with a capacity to process more than 3,50,000 TPA of polymers, among which are polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP)