Bharat Petroleum's Bina Refinery Struggles to Achieve Full Throughput

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources India (Delhi, India)--Government-owned Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BSE:500547) (BPCL) (New Delhi, India) continues to struggle with its Bina Refinery, as the 120,000-barrel-per-day (BBL/d) refinery has not yet achieved full throughput after 10 months of commercial operation.

The primary reason is a major glitch in the system that reduces the steam supply to the boilers in the captive power units. BPCL, along with the boiler supplier, Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BSE:500103) (BHEL) (New Delhi), has started to bring the boilers into full operation.

Further, the crude intake in the refinery over the past months has declined substantially, as the intermediate storage tanks for refined products are full, as much of the product has been rejected in the domestic market because of non-compliance to fuel-standard norms.

Adding to BPCL's worry, the automated system in the dispatch center is out of order, forcing BPCL to manually handle dispatch operations.

The 120,000-BBL/d refinery began commercial operations in May 2011. Nearly half of the Bina Refinery's output is diesel, as well as 600,000 tons each of petrol and jet fuel.

The Bina Refinery is designed to process Arab mix crude (65% Arab light and 35% Arab heavy). The facility also will have the flexibility to process other types of Middle Eastern crude, using the state-of-the-art technologies.

Crude for the refinery is currently imported from Saudi Arabia. BPCL contracted the purchase of 500,000 tons of crude to start the refinery. Bharat Oman Refineries has laid a 1,000-kilometer pipeline from Vadinar in Gujarat to transport the crude.

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