From Reliance to JSW: Indian companies help fill the oxygen supply gap

Several Indian companies have come forward to mitigate the oxygen crisis in India. They have ramped up the production of liquid oxygen that hospitals are finding hard to procure, especially in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. Reliance Industries Limited, Tata, JSW Steel and Jindal Steel and Power are a few companies helping the Indian government provide liquid oxygen to hospitals. They have increased oxygen production at their plants to help meet the daily oxygen requirement at hospitals.

Reliance Industries Limited

The Reliance Group has committed to increase supply of oxygen to over 700 tonnes per day to states like Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat where Covid-19 cases are rising. Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd has tweaked manufacturing at its Jamnagar oil refineries to produce over 700 tonnes a day of medical-grade oxygen which is being supplied free of cost to states badly affected by Covid-19. Reliance's Jamnagar refineries in Gujarat initially produced 100 tonnes of medical-grade oxygen, which has quickly been ramped up to over 700 tonnes.
The supplies being made to states like Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh will provide relief to over 70,000 critically ill patients every day. The company plans to raise medical-grade oxygen production capacity to 1,000 tonnes, PTI reported quoting sources. It added that Reliance will not be charging states for the supply and transportation of oxygen and that this will be part of its CSR initiative.

TATA Group

The Tata Group had announced that they would be helping the government's efforts to increase production and supply of medical oxygen in the country to overcome its shortage and fight Covid-19 pandemic.
In a tweet, the Tata Group on Tuesday said it is "committed to doing as much as possible" to strengthen India's fight against Covid-19. The group announced that it would be importing 24 cryogenic containers to transport liquid oxygen to help overcome its shortage.

JSW Steel and Power

JSW Steel is also gearing up to ramp up its liquid medical oxygen (LMO) supply to over 900 tonnes a day by end of the month. The company said that it will supply around 20,000 tonnes of liquid oxygen in April from its three plants in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Jindal Steel and Power has committed to supply 500 metric tonnes of oxygen and is actively dispatching it to needy hospitals. "We have always stood with the nation in times of need and will continue to support the nation in all possible ways in this war against the pandemic. For JSPL, it is always Nation First," the company said in a recent tweet.
Naveen Jindal, chairman of Jindal Steel and Power, is coordinating with many state governments including Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Telangana to dispatch liquid oxygen to fulfil the medical oxygen shortage at hospitals.

 

SAIL

Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) has enhanced its production and the company has supplied, on an average, 660 metric tonnes of liquid medical oxygen (LMO) per day from its plants as per April 23.
The company further added that on April 21, it had supplied 891 metric tonnes of LMO across the country.

Indian oil corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd

State-owned Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) too have started diverting oxygen produced at their refineries to supplement the availability of medical oxygen in states worst hit by Covid-19. Indian Oil Corporation on Monday said it has started supply of 150 tonnes of oxygen at no cost to various hospitals in Delhi, Haryana and Punjab.

Linde India

Linde India, an industrial gases company, in partnership with Tata Group, has secured 24 cryogenic containers for carriage of medical oxygen from international sources, the company said.

ITC Limited also collaborated with Linde India to airlift 24 cryogenic ISO containers from Asian countries.

"To serve the national priority and Government's effort in easing the bottleneck of medical oxygen supply to hospitals, ITC is air freighting 24 cryogenic ISO containers from Asian countries in collaboration with Linde India Ltd."

Allcargo Logistics

Allcargo Logistics has volunteered to ship 90,000 tents, 20 lakh masks and 500 oxygen concentrators from Singapore for the Maharashtra government. The concentrators help produce oxygen from air.