Billionaire Mukesh Ambani is diverting oxygen produced at his refineries to help India battle a savage coronavirus outbreak that’s paralyzed the commercial capital Mumbai in Maharashtra as daily new infections spike by a record.
Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd, which operates the world’s biggest refining complex in Maharashtra, has started supplying oxygen from Jamnagar in Gujarat to Maharashtra at no cost, according to a company official, who asked not to be identified due to internal policy.
The state will get 100 tons of the gas from Reliance, Eknath Shinde, urban development minister, said in a tweet.
However, another source said trucks are stuck in Jamnagar after local authorities stopped their movement.
An e-mail sent to the company for comments remained unanswered. Facing a huge shortfall in oxygen supplies, Thackeray is believed to have dialled Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the availability of medical oxygen. He also wrote to Modi saying medical oxygen requirement in the state is projected to reach 2,000 tonnes per day by April-end against the present requirement of 1,200 tonnes.
Oil refineries can produce limited volumes of industrial oxygen in air-separation plants meant for nitrogen production. Scrubbing out other gases such as carbon dioxide can convert it into medical-use oxygen with 99.9 per cent purity.
Meanwhile, India logged in a record 2,17,353 daily coronavirus cases as many states grappled with shortages of hospital beds, oxygen, medicines and vaccine doses. The fresh cases in the deadly second wave took the total caseload to over 1.42 crore.
