BPCL's Bina Refinery to Achieve Full Throughput by End of October

---

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Five months after commissioning the crude unit at Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited's (BSE:500547) (BPCL) (New Delhi, India) Bina Refinery, the facility should be ready to achieve full-load operation by the end of October, slightly ahead of its original schedule.

The commercial production from the 120,000-barrel-per-day (BBL/d) refinery is expected to reduce fuel imports to India. Since its commissioning on May 20, 2011, the refinery has been operating at 80-90% capacity. Now, with the integration of the whole refinery process, the throughput would reach 100%, said a source privy to the development.

Indian refineries are expanding capacity as economic growth in Asia's third-largest economy boosts industrial activities. The new land-locked plant has eased BPCL's need to source product through imports or purchase from other Indian refineries to top up its retail sales requirement to meet India's growing fuel demand.

The 120,000-BBL/d refinery commenced commercial production in May, but the plant could not reach full capacity due to a glitch in the steam generation system in the associated power plant, which has now been rectified.

Nearly half of the Bina Refinery's output will be diesel. It will also produce 600,000 metric tons of petrol and jet fuel each.

The Bina Refinery is designed to process Arab Mix Crude (65% Arab Light and 35% Arab Heavy). It will also have the flexibility to process other types of Middle East Crude, adopting the state-of-the-art technologies that include major units such as a crude/vacuum distillation unit, hydrocracker, diesel hydrotreater, delayed coker unit, hydrogen unit, naphtha hydrotreater, CCR reformer unit, isomerization unit and sulfur recovery unit.

Crude for this refinery is currently imported from Saudi Arabia. BPCL has contracted 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.

View Plant Profile - 1034322
View Turnaround Report - 156685

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle™, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities.