Mr Murli Deora minister of petroleum & natural gas took a meeting of the chief executives of various oil companies both public and private including multinationals to review Safety & Security aspects of Oil & 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 was informed that earlier in a meeting of Mr Deora with the Rajasthan Energy Minister, it was decided that IOC would pay INR 50 crore as an immediate relief to various affected units through Rajasthan Industrial Development and Investment Corporation.

The meeting has been called to review the safety to installations in the oil sector including in the private sector. The MoP&NG through the Oil Industry Safety Directorate is committed to the safety of all the oil installations and will work to evolve standards and ensuring compliance in coordination with all stake holders including the private sector and the State Governments. A safety audit of all oil installations would be carried out. In this particular incident, the Ministry will work in close coordination with the State Government of Rajasthan to provide medical assistance to all those who are injured and compensation according to the norms for those who have suffered losses because of the fire.

The following decision points emerged from the meeting

1. All Oil and gas installations in the country will carry out self safety audit confirming to statutory norms including OISD standards by December 31st 2009. The Oil companies will submit the reports to OISD which in turn will submit a consolidated report to MOP&NG.

2. The decision taken in the 27th Meeting of Safety Council held on September 18th 2009 in MOP&NG regarding empowerment of OISD with statutory status would be expedited. OISD will be further strengthened with additional manpower from Oil companies.

3. All Oil and gas companies in the country must have their standard operating procedures 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 will be ensured. All Oil and gas companies will submit reports on having SOPs and its due implementation to OISD by December 31st 2009.