Mumbai. Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), the second-largest oil marketing company, will supply medical oxygen from its Kochi Refinery to government hospitals in Kerala, in view of the shortage of the same for critical patients of covid-19. The company will be supplying around 1.5 tonnes per day of oxygen to Government Hospitals from this facility.
Last year, the company had supplied around 25 tonnes of medical oxygen when the average daily cases had risen in October-November 2020.
“The build-own-operate unit of Kochi Refinery has a provision to produce and store liquid oxygen of 99.7% purity. Currently, the Company has around 20 tonnes of storage of oxygen from which the government hospitals will be supplied. This supply shall be free of cost to Government Hospitals,” BPCL said.
With average daily cases of COVID-19 rising again since the last month, the demand for oxygen has significantly risen. In fact, in most parts of the country, the cases are hitting a new peak, thereby disrupting the demand-supply scenario for medical oxygen.
On Tuesday, Maharashtra’s Urban development minister, Eknath Shinde in a tweet said the state will get 100 tons of oxygen from Reliance Industries’ Jamnagar Refining facility.
This will help aid Maharashtra in its battle with covid-19. Maharashtra has been hit hard by the second wave of covid-19 and is facing a shortage of oxygen at its hospitals.
RIL, which operates one of the largest refining complexes in Maharashtra has started supplying oxygen from Gujarat’s Jamnagar at no cost.
