Indian Oil Corporation's Panipat Refinery to Begin Turnarounds on Two Units

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Indian Oil Corporation Limited (BSE:530965) (IOC) (New Delhi, India) is preparing to begin a 25-day planned maintenance turnaround on the 20,000-barrel-per-day (BBL/d) Residual Hydrocracker Unit in the expansion area of the company's 270,000-BBL/d Panipat Refinery in Panipat, Haryana. The unit is expected to resume operations by the end of May. The major work involves a catalyst changeover.

The same refinery also will undergo a 19-day shutdown on its 70,000-BBL/d diesel hydro-desulfurization unit in the old refinery block. The unit requires repairs to its leaking Packinox and is expected to start up by end of May.

Another unit of the old refining block, the 38,000-BBL/d HGU 1 hydrogen generation unit, may undergo a shutdown in the first week of May.

The overall cost of the turnarounds has been pegged at $5 million.

IOC's Panipat planning division is preparing the list of jobs to be undertaken and is expected to invite bids by March 2011.

Panipat refinery was commissioned in 1998 at a cost of approximately $840 million, with an initial crude refining capacity of 135,000 BBL/d. The refinery has since then doubled its capacity to 270,000 BBL/d. The major secondary processing units include a catalytic reforming unit; a hydrocracker unit; a residual fluidized catalytic-cracking unit; a diesel hydro-desulphurization unit (dhds); a visbreaker unit; a bitumen-blowing unit; a sulfur block; and associated auxiliary facilities. It processes a wide range of both indigenous and imported grades of crude oil.

IOC is the largest refining company in India, owning 10 of India's 20 refineries. The group refining capacity is approximately 1.3 million barrels per day, the largest share among refining companies in India. It accounts for 34.8% of the national refining capacity.

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