MRPL shuts down refinery completely due to water shortage

April 19, 2012

mrplMangalore/New Delhi, April 19: Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) has completely shutdown its 15 million tons a year refinery following shortage of water.

"We had been operating the plant at one-third of the capacity since April 13. The continuing water shortage forced us to take complete shutdown of the refinery now," MRPL Managing Director Uttam Kumar Basu informed media persons in New Delhi.

Meanwhile, the company has approached the Karnataka High Court seeking direction to local authorities for immediately releasing 2.5 million gallons of water per day from the neighbouring Nethravathi river.

"We have prayed to the Hon'ble court that the calculations done by local authorities in withdrawing water supply to Mangalore refinery are flawed. They have not factored in the inflow and so we have prayed for immediate release of water for us to begin operations," he said.

Basu said MRPL has declared "force majeaure" at the refinery and all shipments except those to Mauritius, which relies on India for meeting its fuel needs, will be affected.

Crude oil imports have been stopped as the company already had a huge inventory, he said MRPL begin shuting down different units on Tuesday and currently only crude distillation unit (CDU) was operational.

"CDU too is now being shutdown," he said.

MRPL, a subsidiary of state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), received around 5.5 million gallons of water daily from Nethravathi river.

Water availability in the Nethravathi river and its downstream dams started depleting from the end of March and the refinery is not getting any supplies currently, he said.

"As a result the district authorities enforced reduction of water supply to MRPL to one-third level and finally on April 11, 2012, completely stopped the intake of water from the Nethravathi river," he said.

Mangalore refinery has three crude units -- Phase I of 4.68 million tonnes, Phase II of 7.14 million tonnes and Phase III of 3 million tonnes -- and supplies oil products in southern states.

From April 13, it had shutdown Phase-II and III and now it has closed even Phase-I.

The shutdown would lead to shortage of supply of products to MRPL fed locations.


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News Network
March 24,2020

Mangaluru, Mar 24: A Covid-19 patient from Kasaragod, who recently came from abroad travelled to Mangaluru twice, revealed Karnataka department of health and family welfare.

The 54-year-old person is confirmed as Covid-19 positive case yesterday.

He landed at Mangalore International Airport on March 10 at 5.30pm by Air India Express flight.

From there, he had travelled in his own vehicle to Kasaragod. He had coffee near Kasaragod and reached home at 7.30pm.

On March 11, he had visited local fish market and returned home at 10pm.

He had consulted a local doctor at Kasaragod on March 18 and later visited to Kasturba Medical College, Attavar at 3pm, visited reception and consulted a doctor.

He had tea at KMC canteen and travelled in an auto to Medicity and brought medicines and returned to Kasaragod by KSRTC bus.

Again he travelled to Mangaluru on March 20 in a private vehicle and visited a doctor and returned back to Kasargod in a private vehicle.

The health department has requested all passengers who travelled in the above said flight/aircraft, and KSRTC bus can self-report by dialing 104 or other helpline numbers.

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coastaldigest.com news network
May 23,2020

Bengaluru, May 23: Karnataka reported 216 covid-19 positive cases in last 24 hours, marking the highest single day spike in the state ever since the first case was detected on 8 March. 187 of these 216 patients have recently returned from Maharashtra.

A 32-year old male resident of Bengaluru died on Saturday making it the 42nd fatality in the state.

The spike on Saturday takes the total number of covid-19 positive closer to the 2,000 mark and the number of active cases to 1,307 in the state, according to the daily health bulletin of the health department.

Yadgir in northern Karnataka recorded 72 cases on Saturday while Raichur recorded 40 cases. Cases in the sugarcane growing region of Mandya continued to rise as 28 people tested positive on Saturday that takes the total number of active cases to 211 as against Bengaluru that has 124.

Gadag registered 15 cases while Bengaluru recorded 4 cases.

Most of those who tested positive on Saturday had returned from other states, especially Maharashtra, one of the worst affected regions in the country.

The spike in cases comes even as the B.S.Yediyurappa-led state government is deliberating further easing of lockdown restrictions post 31 May. The state government has already resumed public bus and train services as well to facilitate inter-district movement of people that has added to fears of spreading the virus from cities to villages where healthcare infrastructure is poor and inadequate.

Karnataka will also see domestic flight arrivals from Monday.

In a statement on Saturday, Bengaluru International Airport said that it introduced ‘Parking-to-Boarding contactless’ journey.

“We have introduced innovative contactless procedures to minimise exposure at the Airport. These enhancements demonstrate our continued commitment to keep our passengers safe in this environment," said Hari Marar, managing director and chief executive of the airport said in a statement on Saturday.

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News Network
March 4,2020

Mangaluru, Mar 4: Fifteen Iranian fishermen, arrested for illegally entering Indian waters, were shifted from Mangaluru to Central Prison Bengaluru at Parappana Agrahara recently.

 On October 21, coast guard officials intercepted two fishing vessels near Gayathri island, about 168 nautical miles off Mangaluru Coast and took into custody 15 crew members after they failed to produce necessary documents.

While one of the boats capsized after developing a technical snag, the other boat was brought to Mangalore Port.

On the basis of a written complaint lodged by Indian Coast Guard (ICG) Deputy Commandant Kuldeep Sharma, Karnataka State Coastal Security Police (KSCP) station in Mangaluru filed case against the 15 Iranian fishermen under Maritime Zone of Indian Act 1981.

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