RPL to start exports from Jamnagar this month

Reliance Petroleum (RPL), a unit of Mukesh Ambani-run Reliance Industries, today said it will start exporting petroleum products from the Jamnagar SEZ refinery this month.

The 5,80,000-barrel-a-day or 29-million-tonne-a-year refinery "expects to dispatch its first parcel of refinery products in January 2009", a company press statement said here.

RPL, in which US energy major Chevron Corp holds a 5 per cent stake, started processing crude oil on December 25 and has "achieved successful production of various products", it said.

The company said secondary processing units at the $6 billion refinery were under commissioning.

"The initial phase of production has achieved stability. Commissioning activities are nearing completion at several of the secondary processing units. Several support units and utilities such as water, air, nitrogen, steam and power required for the refinery are being operated successfully. The secondary processing units are under synchronisation and commissioning," it said.

RPL, together with the parent firm's existing only-for-exports 660,000-bpd or 33-million-tonne-a-year refinery, has made Jamnagar the biggest oil-refining hub in the world.

"In completing the state-of-the-art, globally competitive refinery in just 36 months, from concept to commissioning, the company has set a new global benchmark for building a grassroots refinery of this scale and complexity...

...At a time when many large greenfield refinery projects that were announced in the world have been facing significant delays extending to a few years," RPL said.