IndianOil to commission Rs 3,700-cr projects at Haldia Refinery soon
New Delhi   04-Feb-2010
IndianOil will be completing the commissioning of a range of projects worth approximately Rs 3,700 crore next week at its Haldia refinery. The projects, aimed at product quality improvement and capacity augmentation, would also increase the refinery's capacity to produce Euro-IV grade auto-fuel. According to sources, the commissioning of the projects would help the Haldia refinery earn additional margin of a little less than a dollar for a barrel of crude oil to be refined. The gross refining margin (GRM) of the refinery has increased by a dollar following implementation of the Paradip-Haldia crude pipeline in 2009. Sources told Business Line that IndianOil had completed commissioning a number of major projects such as a hydrogen unit and enhancement of the capacity of the crude distillation unit (CDU) by 25 per cent from 6 million tonne (mt) to 7.5 mt at Haldia in January. The company now hopes to complete the commissioning of the hydrocracker unit by as early as next week. The Rs 1,600-crore hydrocracker project, including its associated upside utility units, will improve the yield of the refinery by producing Euro-IV diesel and a few other value-added products, from the bottom. “Overall, the projects will enable us to refine more crude and reduce the share of low value items (bottom end products) produced during the process of distillation. The increase in share of the high value items will naturally improve the profitability of the refinery,” a company source said. Haldia has already implemented projects for production of Euro-IV petrol. The refinery is also producing a limited quantity of Euro-IV grade diesel through other product processes.