Indian Oil Plans $50 Million Maintenance Turnaround at Mathura Refinery

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources India (Delhi, India)--Indian Oil Corporation Limited (BSE:530965) (IOCL) (New Delhi, India) is preparing for a 35-day, refinery-wide maintenance and inspection turnaround at its 160,000 barrel-per-day (BBL/d) Mathura Refinery in Uttar Pradesh. The turnaround is expected to start the first week of August 2013 and to be completed during the second week of September 2013. The overall cost of the turnaround has been pegged at $50 million.

The refinery has a maintenance turnaround cycle of two years. According to IOCL sources, the turnaround also would involve major modifications and upgrades to the convection section of the crude unit heaters, debottlenecking of the low pressure section of the Once Through Hydrocracker and modification of the Naphtha Splitter unit column to decrease benzene content. Other major activities to be performed include maintenance and repair work for heat exchangers, heaters, refractory, columns and overhead condensers.

The Mathura Refinery, the sixth refinery for Indian oil, was commissioned in 1982 with an initial crude refining capacity of 120,000 BBL/d to meet the demand for petroleum products in the northern and western region of India. The refinery has since increased its capacity to 160,000 BBL/d. The major secondary processing units of the refinery include a continuous catalytic reforming unit, Once Through hydrocracker unit, diesel hydrotreater unit, diesel hydrodesulfurization unit, fluid catalytic cracking unit, visbreaker unit, hydro generation unit, amine treatment unit and slfur recovery unit. The refinery presently produces motor spirit and high-speed diesel of Euro-III and IV grades.

Indian Oil is the largest refining company in India and owns 10 out of 20 operational refineries in the country. The Indian Oil group has a cumulative refining capacity of about 1.3 million barrels per day, which is approximately 35% of the nation's total refinery capacity. Indian Oil is presently implementing a 300,000 BBL/d refinery at Paradip, in Orissa. The state-of-the-art refinery is expected to be commissioned by September 2013.

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