en.Wedoany.com Reported - Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) announced that its joint venture refinery in Rajasthan has completed repairs following a partial fire in April and restarted the crude distillation unit (CDU), paving the way for a gradual recovery of fuel production. In a filing to the stock exchange, HPCL stated that the CDU of HPCL Rajasthan Refinery Limited (HRRL) was successfully restarted after completing maintenance, and all product output from the unit and the vacuum distillation unit (VDU) is now being sent to downstream processing.
The company said the refinery has begun producing key petroleum products such as Bharat Stage VI-compliant high-speed diesel (HSD), liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), petroleum coke, and naphtha. Sales of LPG and petroleum coke have commenced, and shipments of BS-VI diesel are expected to begin by the end of this week. Production and shipments of BS-VI gasoline are scheduled to start next week.
Prior to this restart, a partial fire occurred in a heat exchanger bank of the CDU on April 20, disrupting the trial runs and capacity ramp-up activities of the 9-million-tonne-per-year refinery. The main unit of the new refinery, built at a cost of 7,945 billion rupees and originally scheduled to be inaugurated by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi the following day, was shut down after the fire. The fire was believed to have been caused by a hydrocarbon leak from a valve or flange in the heat exchanger circuit.
HPCL confirmed in the statement that the CDU repair work has been completed and successfully started, and all product streams from the CDU and VDU are being routed to storage tanks for downstream processing. With the commissioning of various downstream units, the HRRL refinery has begun producing some major petroleum products. HPCL stated that management remains focused on ensuring safe, stable, and efficient operations, and gradually increasing production to achieve optimal capacity utilization. According to a government statement on April 8, the refinery project was originally scheduled to commence commercial operations on July 1.
This is not the first fire at a refinery in India during its trial run phase. On January 30, 2016, a major fire also broke out at the atmospheric and vacuum unit (AVU) of Indian Oil Corporation's (IOC) Paradip refinery, just over a week before Prime Minister Modi was originally scheduled to inaugurate it on February 7, 2016.
The Rajasthan refinery will become India's 24th refinery and is currently the second most complex unit in the country. Located in the Barmer district of Rajasthan, this refinery and petrochemical complex is designed with an annual capacity of 9 million tonnes, a petrochemical yield exceeding 26%, and a Nelson complexity index of 17, meeting global benchmarks for efficiency and sustainability. The refinery complexity index measures the ability to convert heavier, dirtier crude oil into high-value products.
For comparison, Reliance Industries Limited's Jamnagar refinery in Gujarat has a complexity index of 21.1, capable of processing over 216 different grades of crude oil with a daily processing capacity of 1.24 to 1.4 million barrels, while the Rajasthan refinery has a daily processing capacity of 180,000 barrels. HRRL is a joint venture between HPCL (74% stake) and the Government of Rajasthan (26% stake). Once fully operational, the complex will produce gasoline, diesel, as well as petrochemicals such as polypropylene, polyethylene grades, benzene, and butadiene, widely used in transportation, packaging, pharmaceuticals, and construction sectors.
This article is compiled by Wedoany. All AI citations must indicate the source as "Wedoany". If there is any infringement or other issues, please notify us promptly, and we will modify or delete it accordingly. Email: news@wedoany.com
