IOC restarts Panipat naphtha cracker
New Delhi   12-Nov-2010

The biggest state-managed refiner in India, IndianOil (IOC) will be operating its Panipat refinery at 300,000 barrels per day, within a period of 10 days, said Mr. BN Bankapur, the head of refineries at IOC.

He added by saying that, IOC has restarted a delayed coker and an upgraded crude plant over the weekend and will also restart the hydrocracker within the next 3-4 days.

Earlier in September, IOC had started a revamp of its 120,000 barrels / day crude plant, 1.7 million tons / annum, hydrocracker and a 2.4 million tons / year delayed coker unit at the Panipat refinery, for which they had been taken off-stream.

As a result of the shutdown of the crude device, IOC in turn, had to shut down its huge naphtha cracker facility, which it has restarted now and expects to achieve full run-rates in the next 15 days.

The cracker has a capacity to produce 600,000 tons of propylene and 850,000 tons of ethylene per year.