Revamp at CPC refinery to raise naphtha output by 115,000 tpa

26-Nov-09

India's Chennai Petroleum Corp., a unit of India's largest state-run refiner Indian Oil Corp., has delayed a two-month shutdown at its Manali refinery to end-December. The delay has been caused by a delay is receipt of necessary equipment from vendors. As per initial plans, a shutdown was planned at the 60,000 bpd crude distillation unit in September, which was postponed to October to meet local fuel demand. As per latest plans, the CDU-III will be shut for 55 days from Dec 28 to revamp and raise the capacity to 4 mln tpa (80,000 bpd) from 3 mln tpa. Refinery's annual naphtha output will increase by 115,000 tpa, diesel production by 170,000 tpa, fuel oil capacity by 330,000 tpa, liquefied petroleum gas by 24,000 tpa and jet/kerosene by 285,000 tpa. Petrol octane number will improve to 102 from the current capacity to produce 98. The catalytic unit's annual capacity would be raised to about 303,750 tons (7180 bpd) from the current 225,000 tons. It plans to install a 1.8 mln tpa diesel hydrotreater to produce Euro IV-compliant diesel and 140,000 tpa isomerisation unit to produce blending component to improve petrol specifications by mid-2010. An upgrade to the naphtha hydro treater and catalytic reforming unit to increase production of Euro IV compliant, superior-quality gasoline, has been planned after a 90-95 day shutdown from mid-December.