Some units at Vizag refinery shut after fire - source

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Hindustan Petroleum Corp has shut a fluid catalytic cracker (FCC) and a gasoline unit at its 166,000 barrels per day (bpd) Vizag refinery after a fire in the cooling tower, a company source said on Friday.

"We have shut some of the secondary processing units as a precautionary measure because there will be a shortage of cooling water," said this source, who is not authorised to speak to the media.

"There was a fire in the cooling tower. It has been contained and has not spread to other areas," HPCL Chairman S. Roy Choudhury said, adding the extent of the damage and impact on production was not immediately known.

Most of Vizag's production of petroleum products feeds the domestic market.

Apart from its Vizag refinery in southern India, HPCL also operates a 130,000 bpd plant in western Maharashtra state. It also has a stake in the 180,000 bpd Bathinda refinery in northern India, which is operated by Hindustan-Mittal Energy Ltd, part-owned by LN Mittal.

(Reporting by Nidhi Verma; Editing by Jo Winterbottom)