RIL restarts crude unit after brief shutdown

Reliance Industries, the world's largest refiner, has restarted a 330,000 barrels per day crude distillation unit (CDU) on Monday following a shutdown last week for maintenance, traders said.

The refiner operates two refineries in Jamnagar on the Arabian Sea with a total capacity of 1.24 million barrels per day (bpd).

The CDU which was shut last week was located in the older, 660,000 bpd refinery.

"The shutdown should have taken place before it sold a June naphtha cargo last week," said a trader.

Reliance had on May 16 sold 55,000 tonnes of naphtha for June loading from Sikka to Chevron.

Reliance's naphtha exports so far this year averaged about 72,000 tonnes a month from January to May versus 113,000 tonnes during the same period in 2012.