Hindustan Petroleum Corp to fully start revamped Mumbai refinery by July

NEW DELHI/BENGALURU (Reuters) - India's Hindustan Petroleum Corp.'s Mumbai refinery will start full scale operation at a higher capacity of 190,000 barrels per day (bpd) by end-June or in July, its chairman M. K. Surana said on Thursday.

HPCL had fully shut the 150,000 bpd Mumbai refinery in western Maharashtra from April 1 for maintenance and capacity expansion, Surana said at a press conference to announce March quarter earnings.

"One crude unit of 3.5 million tonnes (70,000 bpd) is under commissioning and we are revamping the second unit to add capacity," he said. The state-run refiner aims to add 40,000 bpd capacity to the second crude unit.

He also said the company is operating its 166,000 bpd Vizag refinery in southern India at full capacity.

HPCL is in process of raising the capacity of the Vizag refinery to 300,000 bpd. Surana said the expansion will be completed in this fiscal year to March 2022 while the residue upgradation facility at the Vizag plant is also likely to be completed in 2022.

In addition, HPCL is building a 180,000 bpd refinery and petrochemical plant in desert state of Rajasthan.

 

(Reporting by Nidhi Verma and Sethuraman N. R.; editing by Barbara Lewis)