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Informist, Tuesday, Apr. 21, 2026

--Govt: Have formed team to investigate cause of fire at Rajasthan refinery 

--CONTEXT: Government officials briefing media on West Asia war 

NEW DELHI – NEW DELHI – The Ministry of Petroluem and Natural Gas has formed a team to investigate the cause of fire at the Pachpadra oil refinery in Rajasthan's Barmer, a senior official said Tuesday. A fire broke out in the crude distillation unit of the refinery Monday afternoon, a day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi was scheduled to inaugurate the facility.

"The ministry has formed a team, and that team has already reached Barmer to investigate the causes of fire at the Pachpadra refinery," Sujata Sharma, joint secretary in the petroleum ministry, said. "Details like the cause of fire and how much time it will take to repair the unit will be shared after the probe."

Addressing an inter-ministerial media briefing on West Asia crisis, Sharma said that the country has sufficient crude oil inventories and no dry-outs had been reported from any petrol pump across the country. She added that domestic liquefied petroleum gas supplies were normal, with commercial units getting 70% of their demand. On Monday, the domestic LPG production stood at 46,500 tonne, she said. 

She said the demand for diesel was expected to go up in the kharif crop season but the ministry has made preparations for it. "In March this year, there was a 12% increase in the sale of petrol and 14% in diesel compared to February," Sharma said. "The demand for diesel is expected to go up in the coming kharif season, but the ministry makes preparations for it months in advance. The demand will be met, and there is no instructions regarding rationing of fuel," the joint secretary added.

She informed that panic booking of LPG cylinders has not stopped fully and it has been reported from around 400 distributors in Maharashtra, Bihar, and parts of Uttar Pradesh.

Aseem Mahajan, additional secretary in the Ministry of External Affair, said that with the reopening of Bahrain air space, Gulf Air is resuming flights to India from Bahrain International Airport from Tuesday.  

Puja Rustagi, director in the ministry of animal husbandry, said that there were concerns about shortage of plastic packaging material for the dairy sector, which have been addressed by the petroleum ministry. She said that operations at dairy processing units are running smoothly. These units have been told to switch to piped natural gas to decrease dependence on LPG, Rustagi said. End

Reported by Asim Khan

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

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