Jaipur fire: IOC to pay Rs 50 Cr immediately to affected units

New Delhi, Nov 3 : All Oil and gas installations in the country will carry out self safety audit confirming to statutory norms including OISD standards by December end.

The Oil companies will submit the reports to OISD which in turn will submit a consolidated report to the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.

These decisions were taken at a meeting of Petroleum Minister Murli Deora with Chief Executives of various oil companies, both public and private, including multinationals, here today to review Safety and Security aspects of Oil and Gas Sector.

The meeting was called in the wake of fire accident at IOC's oil depot near Jaipur and to take stock of the safety preparedness of the Indian oil and gas industry.

The meeting also agreed that the decision taken in the 27th Meeting of Safety Council held on September 18 regarding empowerment of OISD with statutory status would be expedited. OISD will be further strengthened with additional manpower from Oil companies.

All Oil and gas companies in the country must have their standard operating procedures (SOPs) for operations and maintenance practices for all countrywide installations/set-ups under due technical supervision and attention.

A strict implementation of such standard operating procedure (SOPs) will be ensured. All Oil and gas companies will submit reports on having SOPs and its due implementation to OISD by December end.

All Oil and gas installations will have their safety audit done on quarterly basis. All major as well as minor incidents in any such installations/setups in the country including that of private companies will be reported to OISD.

The meeting was informed that earlier in a meeting of Mr Deora with the Rajasthan Energy Minister, it was decided that IOC would pay Rs 50 crore as an immediate relief to various affected units through RIICO (Rajasthan Industrial Development and Investment Corporation).

Speaking at the meeting, Mr Deora said an ex-gratia payment of Rs 10 lakh to those who lost their life, Rs 2 lakh to seriously injured and Rs 1 lakh to those with minor injuries will be given in addition to the compensation being offered by the State.

He said a seven member committee chaired by ex-CMD, HPCL, M B Lal was formed on the same day on October 30 to inquire into the fire accident and suggest remedial measures to prevent reoccurrence.

The committee would submit its report within 60 days.

--UNI

(c) 2009 Published with permission from United News of India.
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