Revamped Mumbai refinery to fully restart this month

Indian state-run refiner HPCL will restart the second crude unit at its Mumbai refinery this month following a revamp, having resumed operations at the first in mid-May, company chairman MK Surana said today.

The refinery, which was shut in April for a maintenance turnaround and expansion work, will be operating at a new capacity of 190,000 b/d by early to mid-October, up from 150,000 b/d before the shutdown, Surana said.

He also said that HPCL plans to restart a 70,000 b/d crude unit at its 166,000 b/d Visakhapatnam (Vizag) refinery in the next 10 days. The unit was shut following a fire in late May. A project to upgrade Vizag and expand its capacity to 300,000 b/d, which was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, is expected to be completed before the end of the current financial year in March 2022, while a new residue upgrade unit will be finished next year, Surana said.

The company said that its gross refining margin for the April-June quarter was $3.31/bl and that it expects diesel demand to reach or come close to pre-pandemic levels by the end of the year.

By Sathya Narayanan