IndianOil to expand Gujarat refinery capacity
Published by Anna Nicklin,
Assistant Editor
Hydrocarbon Engineering,
IndianOil has approved the expansion of its Gujarat refinery from its existing 13.7 million tpy crude oil processing capacity to 18 million tpy. The project will cost approximately Rs. 15 034 crore.
The project will include the proposed upfront execution of a new 15 million tpy atmospheric vacuum unit (AVU) with associated utilities to replace the four atmospheric units and two vacuum units that are currently installed at various stages of the refinery's phase-wise capacity.
After many years in service, being old in its design and with a low capacity, these units are no longer energy-efficient. The execution of the 15 million tpy AVU in 50 months after Stage-1 approval, ahead of other units by about 11 months, will provide impetus to the total project execution and will accrue significant savings and improved energy efficiency by way of operation of a new, large size AVU in place of existing small units. Commissioning the new AVU almost a year ahead of other units will also help in smooth commissioning and stabilisation of other downstream secondary processing units.
According to Sanjiv Singh, Chairman of IndianOil, the proposed refinery configuration will take into account the likely disruptions in the fuel supply/demand scenario in the future and will have built-in flexibility in its operations for strong integration with downstream petrochemical units.
“Gujarat refinery, which went on stream in October 1965 as a 1 million tpy unit, heralded India’s capabilities to build refineries on its own. In the same vein, we are now proposing to incorporate IndianOil's own R&D technologies for both IndMax and kerosene hydrodesulfurisation units. The IndMax unit is being designed for high yields of propylene, for which a polypropylene (PP) unit […] is being set up as a downstream petrochemical unit as part of the refinery configuration,” Singh said.
IndianOil plans to raise the combined capacity of its 11 refineries from the current 80.7 million tpy to over 100 million tpy in the next five years through brownfield expansions. The company is also working to convert its refineries to produce superior BS-VI quality fuel by April 2020.
Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/refining/08082017/indianoil-to-expand-gujarat-refinery-capacity/
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