Latest start-up marks Indian refining boom

Indian Oil Corp. (IOC) is about halfway through the phased start-up of its new refinery at Haryana, India. It is one of several new Asian refineries slated for start-up this year (see related special report, p. 41).

Considered India's most modern and capable refinery, the so-called Panipat refinery incorporates technologies from France's Institut Français du Pétrole, Denmark's Haldor Topsøe AS, and U.S. firms UOP LLC and Stone & Webster Engineering Corp.

The refinery processes both indigenous and imported crude. It will produce 19,500 b/d of unleaded gasoline, 17,200 b/d of jet fuel, 11,500 b/d of kerosine, and 550 metric tons/day of fuel gas. Other products will include naphtha, bitumen, and sulfur.

Meanwhile, IOC continues to press plans to dramatically increase its refining capacity against a backdrop of weakening products demand, growing excess capacity, and evaporating margins.

History

The Panipat refinery is IOC's seventh. Located 100 km from New Delhi, the 38.68 billion rupee refinery has an installed capacity of 120,000 b/d.

Earlier known as the Karnal refinery, the project was instigated by former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1987. It was to be a joint venture of IOC and Tatas, among others.

During the subsequent regime of V.P. Singh, the project got bogged down in controversy when IOC and Tatas could not come to terms on ownership of the plant. The government eventually abandoned the joint venture scheme and asked IOC to float the refinery on its own.

Final clearance for the project was given by the P.V. Narasimha Rao government in 1992.

Start-up

Crude was first introduced into the refinery in October of this year. The unit is now operating at 70% of capacity, as are a 62,000 b/d vacuum distillation unit and a 6,500 b/d visbreaker, says IOC. The refinery began trial operation of its 12,000 b/d continuous-regeneration catalytic reformer this month. And a 1,400 ton/day bitumen blower is mechanically complete but has not yet started up.

Expected to start-up by March 1999 are:

A 32,600 b/d hydrocracker.
A 1,600 ton/day hydrogen unit.
A 13,400 b/d fluid catalytic cracking unit.
An 84 ton/day sulfur-recovery unit.
Two sour water strippers.
An amine regeneration unit.

There is already a proposal in place to expand the capacity of the Panipat refinery to 180,000 b/d.

IOC expansion projects

IOC has drawn up plans to more than double its refining capacity.

According to a strategy paper prepared by the company, IOC will increase its refining capacity to 1.123 million b/d from the present 514,000 b/d by 2004-05. This does not include the 180,000 b/d Paradip refinery the company plans in a joint venture with other companies.

In addition to the 120,000 b/d Panipat refinery, which will take IOC's refining capacity to 634,000 b/d, IOC currently is increasing the capacity of its Gujarat refinery by 60,000 b/d to 250,000 b/d.

It also plans a further low-cost expansion of the refinery by 24,000 b/d to take capacity ultimately to 274,000 b/d.

In incremental expansions, IOC plans to hike capacity of its Barauni refinery by 18,000 b/d to 84,0000 b/d, Mathura refinery by 10,000 b/d to 160,000 b/d, and Haldia refinery by 25,000 b/d to 100,000 b/d.

The implementation of these projects will take IOC's refining capacity to 771,000 b/d by 2001-02.

IOC also has some expansion projects that are still pending government approval. These include the capacity expansion of its Barauni refinery to 120,000 b/d from 84,000 b/d, Panipat refinery to 180,000 b/d from 120,000 b/d, and Gujarat refinery to 320,000 b/d from 274,000 b/d.

These projects would then add 142,000 b/d to IOC total capacity by 2002-03 for a total of 913,000 b/d.

Under study

IOC is also studying feasibility of the following projects:

Debottlenecking the Gujarat refinery and inceasing its capacity by 40,000 b/d to 360,000 b/d.
Increasing capacity of the Panipat refinery by 60,000 b/d to 240,000 b/d.
Adding 60,000 b/d of capacity at the Mathura refinery to take its capacity to 220,000 b/d.
Increasing the Haldia refinery's capacity by 50,000 b/d to 70,000 b/d by debottlenecking.

If these projects are flashed a green light, IOC would then add a further 210,000 b/d of capacity by 2004-05, taking its total refining capacity to 1.123 million b/d.