Briefing local newspersons here on Wednesday, the refinery's Executive Director P S Rao said the Gujarat refinery's process of upgrading the entire computerised operations was probably the most economical in the country. Initiated about a year and half ago, the entire process so far has cost IOC about Rs 1.5 crore, he said.

The IOC has taken extra initiatives to address the Y2K problems in its all the business applications systems and plant facility systems by upgrading them and tested them for Y2K compliance, Rao said. The Vadodara refinery has either upgraded or formatted afresh 56 hardware systems, 51 systems softwares and nine application softwares. The whole system was done with help of internationally-acclaimed professionals and tested successfully.

As the first step, the systems likely to be affected by the millennium bug were identified, while the impact analysis was done in the second leg, in which the original suppliers and manufacturers were contacted for Y2K conformity, Rao said. The final step was execution of the necessary rectifications of the systems to make them foolproof, Rao said. The journalists were also given a lecture-demonstration on how the systems will work despite the millennium rollover when the dates change from December 31, 1999 to January 1, 2000 at 00:00 hours.

Rao added that IOC has urged all associated industries, from where it sources crude oil and gas supplies, to undergo Y2K compliance and is confident of their fool-proof and fail-safe plans. But the refinery has also made an elaborate contingency plan to meet any challenge, not only for the rollover night, but also other dates of leap years till 2029 AD.

Besides extra monitoring stations and duties and equipment such as mobile phones, the refinery will also refuse leaves to its staff from December 30 till January 2, 2000. The refinery has also stocked extra material used in its different operations as a precautionary measure.