Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd. (HPCL) has awarded Technip Energies an engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract for two major units in the lube modernization and bottoms upgradation (LMBU) project at its 9.5-million tonne/year (tpy) Mumbai refinery in Maharashtra, India.

The work covers a 550,000-tpy integrated hydrocracker and catalytic dewaxing (IHCD) unit and an 850,000-tpy solvent deasphalting (SDA) unit. Both will be integrated into the operating refinery, Technip Energies said in a release Oct. 12.

The new units aim to increase production of lube oil base stocks (LOBS) used in automotive engine oils and industrial lubricants, while upgrading heavier refinery streams into higher-value products, according to the service provider.

While Technip Energies did not reveal the precise value of the contract, the company confirmed the order would amount to between €250-500 million of revenue.

This latest EPC contract for the project’s IHCD and SDA units follows HPCL’s earlier award to Chevron Lummus Global for licensing of technologies to outfit the IHCD unit.

Project overview

HPCL’s LMBU project is designed to raise the Mumbai refinery’s output of LOBS to 764,000 tpy from 475,000 tpy, including production of Group II+ and Group III base stocks. The project is also expected to increase bitumen production by about 487,000 tpy through fuel oil upgrading, as well as improve the refinery’s yield of distillate by about 4%, HPCL said in a release Jan. 23, 2025.

HPCL began work on the LMBU project during the third quarter of its 2025 fiscal year at an estimated project cost of 46.79 billion rupees (US$541.1 million).

Scheduled to be fully completed in March 2028, the LMBU project had reached 9.9% physical completion as of Mar. 31, 2026, at a then-current project cost of 57.40 billion rupees (US$600.4 million), HPCL said in an investor presentation dated May 13, 2026.