IOC, HPCL, BPCL defer refinery shutdown
New Delhi   21-Mar-2011

Three leading oil companies IndianOil (IOC), Hindustan Petroleum (HPCL) and Bharat Petroleum (BPCL) have deferred from shutting down some of their refineries to meet local fuel demand.

Indian refiners are struggling to get a good response to their diesel import tenders as traders target more lucrative sales to quake-hit Japan.

"If situation continues like this, when Indian fuel demand is rising at a fast pace and so are international fuel prices, being the largest state-run oil marketing firm we may have a re-look at our shutdown plans," IOC’s BN Bankapur said, adding, “I am a state-run firm, I have to run for the country.”

India's biggest refiner IOC, with a capacity to process 1.294 million bpd oil, plans to shut a hydrocracker and some other units at its biggest Panipat refinery in May for routine maintenance.

Meanwhile, BPCL has delayed the planned shutdown of two of its units in Mumbai and Kerala. The company operates a 240,000-bpd refinery in Mumbai as well as a 190,000-bpd refinery at Kochi.

"No dates have yet been decided ... But we have deferred the planned shutdowns scheduled for April," RK Singh said.

Last week BPCL bought only one of the four diesel cargoes it was seeking via tender for April delivery at a very high premium.

HPCL too may defer the planned 15-day shutdown of a 60,000 barrels per day crude unit at Mumbai refinery to September, its head of refineries K Murali said. "We have to do some corrections in tower. We are looking at deferring the shutdown because industry demand has come," he added.

Murali, however, said the company has no plans to change a 45-day maintenance shutdown of a 60,000 bpd crude unit, a visbreaker unit and a fluid catalytic cracker (FCC) at Vizag refinery. The shutdown will begin in November, he said.

Visbreaking is a chemical engineering process unit used in petroleum refineries that reduces the viscosity of the residual oil from the refinery's atmospheric or vacuum distillation of petroleum crude oil and increases the yield of more valuable middle distillates (fuel oils) by the refinery.

The company runs a 130,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) refinery in Mumbai and a 166,000 bpd plant at Vizag, Andhra Pradesh.