Trade Resources Industry Views Indian Refiner MRPL Is Close to Completing The Long-Drawn-out Third Phase

Indian Refiner MRPL Is Close to Completing The Long-Drawn-out Third Phase

Indian refiner Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd is close to completing the long-drawn-out third phase of its expansion project, which will see a new petroleum fluid catalytic cracker and delayed coker unit come onstream at its 15 million mt/year (300,000 b/d) Mangalore refinery, the company said in a statement late Saturday.

The FCC has a capacity of 2.2 million mt/year and the delayed coker a capacity of 3 million mt/year, Platts reported earlier citing a senior MRPL official.

The units were earlier scheduled to come onstream in early 2013, but got delayed due to water supply problems at the refinery in mid-2012 and a delay in the commissioning of a captive power plant at the site by Bharat Heavy Electrical Ltd.

"The overall project progress as on January 15, 2014, was 99.5%," MRPL said in the statement Saturday announcing its financial results for the third quarter of fiscal year 2013-2014 (April-March).

"The work progress on the CPP (captive power plant) by BHEL continues to be a major factor for delayed commissioning of units," the refiner added.

It did not say when the power plant and secondary units will be commissioned, but MRPL Managing Director P. Upadhya said last month that he expects the power plant to be ready by mid-February, according to local media reports.

On completion, the refinery's Nelson complexity index is expected to increase from the current six to around 10, Upadhya said, adding that this would enable the refinery to process cheaper, heavier crude oil into higher-value end-products.

MRPL in March 2012 completed the expansion of the nameplate capacity of the refinery -- which was part of the overall Phase III expansion project -- to 15 million mt/year from 11.82 million mt/year, with the commissioning of a new 3 million mt/year crude distillation unit/vacuum distillation unit.

Other units that were added as part of the Phase III expansion included: a 70,000 mt/year hydrogen generation unit, a 3.7 million mt/year diesel hydrotreater, three 185 mt/day sulfur recovery units, and a 650,000 mt/year coker heavy gasoil hydrotreating unit.

According to information on the company's website, mechanical completion of the entire Phase III was slated for October 2011.

CRUDE THROUGHPUT FALLS 1.6% ON YEAR IN OCT-DEC

Separately, MRPL said Saturday that it processed 3.75 million mt (298,777 b/d) of crude oil at its refinery in the October-December quarter, down by 1.6% from the same period in the previous year.

The company attributed the drop to a shutdown of one of the refinery's crude distillation units.

The company's exports of refined oil products fell 16% year on year to 1.81 million mt during the quarter, it said.

MRPL, which is 71.62% owned by state-owned upstream major Oil and Natural Gas Corp., itself does not own any retail service stations and instead sells its gasoline and diesel to other state-owned oil marketing companies. It also regularly issues export tenders for its products.

The company's gross refining margin during the October-December quarter turned to minus $0.58/barrel from plus $1.89/b in the year-ago period, MRPL said.

The refiner posted a net loss of Rupees 2.48 billion ($40 million) in the quarter under review, compared with a loss of Rupees 3.60 billion posted in the same period the previous year. Revenue was up 4.3% year on year at Rupees 195.06 billion.

MRPL attributed the ongoing loss to delays in the completion of the Phase 3 expansion, especially delays in the startup of the captive power plant, which led to increased fuel consumption and associated expenses. Lower marketing margins during the quarter also pulled down the performance of the company, it said.

Besides ONGC, state-owned refiner Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd. holds a 16.95% stake in the company, with the remaining 11.43% held by public investors.

Source: http://news.chemnet.com/Chemical-News/detail-2245366.html
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India's MRPL Close to Completing Long-Drawn-out Phase III Refinery Expansion
Topics: Metallurgy