Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Jitin Prasad, has ordered a safety audit of all the oil installations and their delivery system, fuel storage tanks, pipelines and tanker-trucks in the country.

He also told the oil marketing companies to identify fuel storages that are located in thickly populated areas and prepare a strategy to shift them out.

Prasad has instructed his ministry to complete this audit by December 31. The audit will carefully inspect the handling of loading and dispatch processes of fuel and also disaster management plans at storage sites.

The safety and security audit follows Wednesday's devastating fire at the Indian Oil Corporation near Jaipur in Rajasthan.