One worker died and another suffered burn injuries after a high-pressure cold separator ruptured in the delayed coker gas oil hydrotreater at Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd.'s (MRPL) 300,000-plus bpd-equivalent Mangalore refinery in Karnataka, India, on Sept. 30.

The rupture occurred at about 12:20 p.m. local time in the unit, also identified in the company's regulatory filings to BSE Ltd. as the coker heavy gas oil hydrotreating unit. The resulting fire prompted MRPL to isolate the affected unit's battery limits and deploy emergency response and firefighting teams, the company said in its filings.

Firefighting crews brought the blaze under control and fully extinguished it by 2:47 p.m. local time — roughly two and a half hours after the separator failed.

What did MRPL disclose, and when?

MRPL issued its first regulatory update while firefighting was still under way. At that stage, the company reported one minor injury and said the injured person was out of danger.

The picture worsened after the fire was extinguished. During combing and inspection operations at the affected plant, personnel found the body of one deceased individual. A second person had sustained burn injuries and was receiving hospital treatment, MRPL said.

What remains unknown?

The company has not disclosed several key details:

• The identities of the deceased and the injured worker
• The cause of the cold separator rupture
• The extent of damage to the hydrotreating unit
• Whether the incident affected broader refinery operations or production

MRPL, a subsidiary of Oil & Natural Gas Corp. Ltd. (ONGC), said further verified information would be released as it becomes available.

Why the unit matters

The coker heavy gas oil hydrotreater treats heavy gas oil streams from the refinery's delayed coker ahead of downstream conversion. A prolonged outage of the unit could affect the refinery's product slate, though MRPL has not commented on any operational impact from the incident.

The watch item: MRPL's next regulatory filing, expected to clarify the cause of the separator failure, the unit's damage assessment, and any production impact at the Mangalore complex.