New Delhi, Mar 26: Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd. (HPCL) is planning a maintenance shutdown of two units of its Mumbai refinery in early May and raising the capacity of the refinery through de-bottlenecking from 5.5 million tonnes per annum to 7.9 million tonnes. The refinery's 3.50 million tonnes per annum capacity crude distillation unit and a vacuum distillation unit will be shut for 15 days starting the first week of May as part of a maintenance and revamping plan, company sources said. The company is in the process of investing over Rs 2787 crore in raising its Mumbai and Vizag refinery capacity through de-bottlenecking and process upgradation for higher volumes and better fuel quality.
De-bottlenecking of the primary and secondary processing units would result in HPCL's Mumbai refinery's capacity going up to 7.9 million tonnes from 5.5 million tonnes while Vizag capacity would go up to 8.3 million tonnes from 7.5 million tonnes, they said.
The Rs 1152.2 crore project, which includes a foreign exchange component of Rs 178.5 crore, would maximise Mumbai refinery distillate yield and enable it to produce Euro-III specification petrol and diesel.
Currently, Mumbai refinery produces petrol and diesel meeting Euro-II standards. The project is expected to complete in 30 months.
Bureau Report