India's BPCL Selects Project Management Consultant for Kochi Refinery Expansion

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Researched by Industrial Info India (Delhi, India)--India's state-owned oil company, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BSE:500547) (BPCL) (Mumbai, Maharashtra), has selected Engineers India Limited (BSE:532178) (EIL) as the project management consultant for the expansion and modernization of its Kochi refinery. EIL has also performed feasibility study for the project. The $3.1 billion upgrade and expansion program is intended to increase the throughput of refined products, and it will help to implement clean fuel technology.

As per the terms of the contract, EIL will provide consultancy services for project management, process design, residual process design, detailed engineering, procurement, inspection, expending, tendering, construction management and supervision. In coordination with EIL, BPCL has already selected licensors for its major process units. The project will increase the capacity of the existing refinery by 110,000 to 120,000 barrels per stream a day.

The expansion project includes process units such as a crude distillation unit, vacuum distillation unit, vacuum gas oil hydrotreater, diesel hydrotreater, fluid catalytic cracking unit, amine regeneration unit, hydrogen production unit, sulfur recovery unit, and associated offsites and utilities facilities.

The Kochi refinery, which is located at Ambalmugal near the city of Kochi in Kerala, is one of the two refineries at BPCL. The refinery currently has a crude oil refining capacity of 9.5 million metric tonnes per annum. The refinery has a product portfolio of the 190,000 barrels per day. In addition to its range of quality fuels, the refinery also includes petrochemical feedstock and specialty products.

Bharat Petroleum owns refineries in Mumbai and Kochi, with production capacities of 12 million and 9.5 million metric tonnes per annum, respectively. The company also owns 61.65% and 49% stakes in Bharat Oman Refineries Limited's (Mumbai, Maharashtra) Bina refinery in Madhya Pradesh and Numaligarh Refinery Limited's (Guwahati, Assam) refinery, which is located at Numaligarh in the Golaghat district of Assam. For 2012, BPCL was ranked 225th in the Fortune Global 500 rankings of the world's biggest corporations.

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