Sabotage theory seen behind Indian Oil blast

Though authorities are still clueless about the cause of the explosion at the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) plant in Koyali on Friday, a top company official attributed the incident to a sabotage.

At least two labourers were killed in the explosion, while 18 are reportedly missing.

The explosion had ripped through the fluid catalytic cracking unit (FCCU) of the company.

Meanwhile, a team of forensic experts from Ahmedabad arrived at the blast site on Sunday for investigation.

B N Bankapur, executive director, IOC, said: "Even the technical officials are clueless about the explosion at the FCCU. At this stage we cannot rule out the possibility of a sabotage. The reactor of the unit is intact, while the slurry settler was found exploded due to unknown reasons. A blast in a slurry settler is something unheard of in the industry. We have approached the US-based process licenser."

The FCCU was installed by the US-based Universal Oil Products.

In its initial statement after the blast, IOC had stated that "there was an explosion in the FCCU reactor at about 3:38 am on October 29, 2004, resulting in a fire in the FCCU".

Bankapur on Saturday claimed that except the slurry settler unit, everything is intact and IOC will have to restore only the slurry settler at a negligible cost.

"The restoration of the FCCU will cost us about Rs 5 crore only as we will not have rebuild the entire unit. We will face losses of about Rs 3 million a day resulting in monthly loss of about Rs 9 crore. The restoration will cost us about Rs 5 crore compared with the cost of about Rs 314 crore for the entire FCCU at a recent valuation," said Bankapur.

IOC officials believe that the unit will become functional within a month.

However, Bankapur said there will not be any problem with the supply chain as the lack of processing about 5,000 tonne crude oil will be compensated by shifting operations to the Panipat facility as excess capacity is lying there.

The forensic science laboratory team from Gandhinagar headed by D S Dahiya, deputy director of FSL, started its investigation on Sunday morning.

"The FSL team could not start investigation immediately as the rescue work was going on till late Saturday. The FSL team has started investigation at the site and the precise number of casualties will be known after they submit their report. So far two deaths have been confirmed and there may be more after the debris are removed," said Sudhir Sinha, commissioner of police, Vadodara City.

Meanwhile, the tiffin boxes found unclaimed after the blast have been claimed by a labour contractor company TMK Engineering.

So far two missing persons have been reported with the Jawaharnagar police station from the near by villages.

On Saturday, the family members of Budha Gohil and Jagdish Parmar from Bajwa and Sevasi villages, respectively, were allowed to visit the damaged site. They were accompanied by IOC officials, local political leaders and a police officer.

IOC sources said there can be many more missing but not reported yet as most of the workers are living in nearby villages without families.

The workers who witnessed the blast at FCCU said there were at least 150 workers present at the plant at the time of the explosion. They feel that there can be a number of workers under the debris considering the intensity of the blast.

The FCCU plant is insured along with the entire Gujarat Refinery with a number of insurance companies, said Bankapur.