KARACHI: Stakeholders at odds over CNG station explosion
By S. Raza Hassan & Bahzad Alam Khan
KARACHI, Dec 4: The Sindh government, Shell Pakistan and the Sui Southern Gas Company have refused to accept the blame for the explosion that occurred on Wednesday at a petrol and CNG station in Defence, leaving 17 people wounded.
The blame game intensifies as the operation to remove the wreckage from the petrol station gets under way on Thursday. All the three parties agree that the cause of the explosion would become evident only after the removal of the wreckage.
Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, the chairman and managing director of Shell Pakistan, Farooq Rahmatullah, said that no CNG cylinder had exploded at the Bahria petrol station.
He, in effect, refuted the statement of the Sindh government in which it had said that “the blast at the petrol pump in Phase V, Defence Housing Authority, Karachi was of purely accidental nature caused by the explosion of a gas cylinder.”
Mr Rahmatullah said the initial investigation carried out by Shell Pakistan disclosed that all the CNG compressors, 40 gas cylinders and fuel storage tanks at the petrol station were unimpaired. He added that they were not the cause of the explosion.
Answering a question, he admitted that the cause of the explosion could not be ascertained unless the wreckage was removed from the site.
He said: “The epicentre of the explosion appears to be in the part of the building which is at a distance from the CNG facilities mentioned above and fuel storage tanks. We do not wish to speculate on the causes of the incident.”
However, he added that the epicentre of the explosion appeared to be in the part of the building where stores and a washroom were located and which was “close to the SSGC metering section”.
He pointed out that some officials of the SSGC had visited the petrol station on Wednesday morning, a couple of hours before the explosion.
When contacted, high-ranking SSGC officials said the officials of the gas utility had visited the CNG station in connection with a complaint lodged by the petrol station about the presence of dust in gas supply.
They said the SSGC was responsible only for the delivery of natural gas to customers. “The commercial customers are responsible for the compression, storage and distribution of natural gas. By the same token, those who run CNG stations should ensure the protection of their gas network,” they said.
The SSGC officials said the gas company gave connections to only those commercial concerns which obtained clearance from the Hydrocarbon Development Institute of Pakistan, Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority and the chief inspector of explosives of the federal ministry of industries.
They said some people spoke of smelling natural gas near the CNG station. They added that in that case the operators of the CNG station should have informed the SSGC without delay.
However, the Shell managing director said his company adhered to the standards laid down by the government. “In addition, Shell Pakistan follows US and UK safety maintenance standards known as BS-5054 and DOT 3AA. The assistance of foreign experts has been sought to determine the cause of the explosion. A Manchester-based expert has agreed to visit the explosion site,” he said.
Answering questions about the ownership of the petrol station, the Shell managing director said it was a multioperation station. “Land was leased to Shell Pakistan by the government. The petrol station has been constructed by Shell Pakistan but the CNG plant has been set up by Green Field company. The petrol station is being operated by the Defence Housing Authority and the Select store is owned by Shell,” he said.
A press note issued by the Sindh government on Thursday said an inquiry team was examining all aspects of the incident including the possibility that it might be an act of terrorism. According to the press note, eight injured people have confirmed that a fire broke out in the Select shop followed by a loud bang and collapse of the building.
“One of the injured, Asim,...has told the inquiry team that he parked his car ABS-316 Honda City at the CNG filling station and went inside the Select shop to buy cigarettes and a lighter. As soon as he and the salesman lit the lighter the place was engulfed in flames followed by a loud explosion and he rushed out in panic. Later he found himself in the hospital.
This has also been confirmed by the salesman Safeer who sold the cigarettes and lighter to Asim.
“Four other injured who are working in the Select shop have told the inquiry team that the CNG plant adjacent to the Select shop was closed for the past one month and for the last three days they could smell the leaking gas from the plant. This complained to the CNG plant staff. However, no action was taken. The leakage of gas from the CNG plant has also been confirmed by Mushtaq, assistant manager of the Select ship. He has further stated that just before the incident the smell of the leaking gas became unbearable and as soon as he came out of the shop to go to the CNG plant to find out the cause of the smell, there was fire inside the shop followed by a loud bang and the roof of the Select shop caved in.
“Regarding the latest situation at the site the inquiry team has reported that the dilapidated structure of the Select shop has been demolished today. However, removal of the rubble has been stopped due to presence of 40 high pressure gas filled cylinders. Till late night the CNG plant staff told the inquiry team that these cylinders were empty. Today when the rubble was being removed they requested that they be allowed to empty these cylinders. To avoid further explosions inspector mines and explosives, government of Pakistan, was called to the site who examined the cylinders and advised that cylinders be emptied by discharging the gas before removing the debris to avoid risk of further explosions. Discharging the gas from these high pressure filled cylinders will take several hours. Therefore, the removal of the debris has been postponed till tomorrow. The Bomb Disposal experts will be able to give their opinion after inspecting the site subsequent to removal of debris. After receiving the expert opinion of the bomb disposal squad the inquiry team will be able to determine the cause of fire and explosion.”
Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Defence Housing Authority told Dawn on the telephone that talking to journalists the DHA administrator, Brig Maqsood Hussain, had said earlier in the day that the explosion had occurred because of a leakage of gas at the CNG station.
