New Delhi: India’s steel and petroleum sector companies, the two biggest users and producers of liquid oxygen, have ramped up their oxygen production capacity by eight times in less than seven weeks to ensure enough oxygen supply to Covid patients.
The ferocious second Covid wave has killed more than 4,100 Covid patients per day in the last seven days, a large number of them died due to lack of oxygen, prompting the government to mobilise the military, steel producers and refiners to increase the supply of life-saving gas.
According to the latest official data shared by the government, steel and petroleum companies, both in the public and private sector, are supplying more than 55% of the country’s requirement for medical oxygen.
Steel plants, primary users of liquid oxygen account for nearly 80% of the total life-saving gas produced by the petroleum and steel sector and the remaining 20% oxygen is produced by refineries.
In less than two months, steel companies were able to ramp up their oxygen production, from a little over 500 tonnes to over 4,400 tonnes a day. The steel sector was producing 538-tonnes of oxygen on April 1 and on May 17, the production capacity hit a new record of 4,435 tonnes.
According to the data shared by the government, public sector steel giant SAIL produced 1,485-tonnes liquid oxygen followed by the JSW which produced 1,162 tonnes while Tata group steel companies produced 1,154-tonnes of oxygen on Monday. AMNS India produced 238-tonnes of oxygen while public sector steel maker RINL produced 158 tonnes and the remaining of the total 4,435-tonne oxygen was produced by other steel companies as sustained effort increased the oxygen production from 4,314 tonnes on May 16 to 4,435 tonne on Monday (May 17).
Also Read: PLA exercising in its depth areas opposite Ladakh, Indian forces watching closely
"Steel plants have ramped up daily production capacities, including through diverting liquid nitrogen and argon production capacity towards the production of additional quantities of the liquid medical oxygen. They also reduced usage of gaseous oxygen to increase production of the liquid medical oxygen," said the government.
In addition to steel companies, public and private sector refiners also supply over 1,150-tonne liquid oxygen on daily basis with the bulk of production coming from Reliance Industries' Jamnagar refinery, IOCL’s Panipat refinery, and BPCL’s Kochi and Bina refineries.
Jumbo Covid care centres
In addition to meeting over 55% of the country’s medical oxygen requirement, steel and petroleum sector companies are also helping by facilitating 12,000 oxygen beds at temporary jumbo Covid care centres across the country.
"The steel sector is in the process of establishing 8,500 oxygenated beds across the country, which will use gaseous oxygen produced in their plants, overcoming the difficulty of transporting LMO over the long distances," said the government.
Logistics biggest hurdle
One of the reasons behind a large number of deaths in the second Covid was lack of medical oxygen in states like Maharashtra, Punjab, Karnataka and other states, including national capital Delhi. The situation was aggravated as several large steel producers have their plants in the north and northeastern part of the country, which had enough oxygen supply but the country lacked the required number of oxygen tankers to transport the medical oxygen to hospitals in these states.
The second wave caught the authorities completely unprepared as more than 1,15,000 people have been killed in the country since April 1 this year, which is more than 40% of the total Covid deaths in the country in the last more than 13 months.
The authorities have been trying to deal with the unfolding crisis by learning from their mistakes and encouraging public sector refiners to set up Covid care centres in the vicinity to tackle the problem of transportation of liquid oxygen.
According to the ministry of petroleum and natural gas, temporary Covid hospitals are being set up at BPCL Bina Refinery, IOC Panipat Refinery, BPCL Kochi Refinery, HMEL Bathinda Refinery, and CPCL Chennai Refinery.
Recently, Covid care centres near the Kochi and Panipat Refineries, and the Steel plant at Hisar have become operational.
Also Read: Less than 2 pc population affected by COVID in India, 98 pc still vulnerable: Govt
Oxygen Concentrators
In addition to boosting the supply of liquid oxygen and setting up Covid care centres near oxygen production centres, oil sector companies are also gearing up to procure oxygen concentrators.
Public sector oil exploration giant ONGC has been given the responsibility to procure one lakh oxygen concentrators.
According to officials, the delivery process is expected to begin this week and the entire consignment will be available by June end.
According to officials, to promote domestic capacity, orders for the supply of 40,000 oxygen concentrators have been placed with domestic manufacturers.
High capacity filling stations
In addition to that, oil and gas PSUs are installing high capacity oxygen compressors to fill a large number of cylinders in a very short period, importing liquid oxygen and providing logistics support. Petrol sector PSUs are also establishing more than 100 PSA oxygen generation plants in hospitals across the country to boost the supply.
