By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, May 11 -- A joint venture of Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd., Mumbai, and Mittal Energy Investment Pte. Ltd., Singapore, soon will start up a 180,000 b/d grassroots refinery in the northern Indian state of Punjab.
HPCL Chairman and Managing Director Subir Roy Choudhury told reporters in New Delhi that mechanical construction of the high conversion Guru Gobind Singh refinery near Bhatinda is complete and that crude runs will start in June or July.
Construction is nearly complete on a 1,014-km 28-30-in. pipeline that will carry crude to the refinery from Mundra on the coast of the central-western state of Gujarat. The project includes a crude oil terminal and single-point mooring with 17 km of 48-in. pipeline in the Gulf of Kutch at Mundra.
The Mundra-Bhatinda pipeline transits coastal plains and saline mud flats in Gujarat, dry cultivation fields and the eastern fringe of Thar Desert in Rajasthan, and the Ghagghar flood plains in Haryana. It includes 24 river and 51 canal crossings.
Key processes of the refinery include delayed coking, fluid catalytic cracking, diesel and vacuum gas oil hydrotreating, continuous catalytic reforming with naphtha hydrotreating and isomerization, propylene production, and hydrogen generation.
The refinery includes a 165 Mw captive power plant.
Each major partner holds a 49% interest in refinery operator Hindustan Mittal Energy Ltd., based in Noida, near New Delhi. Indian financial institutions hold the other 2%.
Photo from ExxonMobil Corp.
Photos from Repsol SA.
