NEW DELHI - A fire at India's Haldia Petrochemicals plant has injured several people, the company said in a statement on Tuesday. The company said operations are not affected so far by the fire, which happened at a place where naphtha - a volatile, highly flammable liquid hydrocarbon mixture produced during refining - has been stolen from in the past.
Earlier, local media had reported a massive fire in the refinery, located in India's eastern state of West Bengal in the early hours of Tuesday, with visuals showing smoke and fire billowing out of the area.
"Preliminary information suggests that the incident may have occurred in the vicinity of a naphtha theft point," Haldia Petrochemicals said in a statement.
"We are aware of an incident that occurred at our Haldia facility, in which a few people have reportedly sustained injuries," the statement said.
HPL said the exact cause of the incident is under investigation and said it had cautioned local communities against unauthorised access to petroleum products.
Several of the injured had been moved to hospitals, local media said.
The company operates a 700,000 ton-per-year ethylene cracker in the eastern state of West Bengal. The company is majority-owned by US-based private equity firm The Chatterjee Group (TCG).
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