Chennai Petroleum to shut crude unit, hydrocracker for a month

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Chennai Petroleum Corp (CPCL) will shut a 74,000 barrel per day (bpd) crude unit and some secondary units at its Manali refinery for a month from the last week of January for maintenance and upgrade, a source with knowledge of the plan said.

Chennai Petroleum's 210,000 bpd Manali refinery in southern India has three crude units. The planned shutdown is aimed at upgrading the fuel specification as India moves to a nationwide introduction of Euro IV compliant fuels from April.

CPCL, a subsidiary of Indian Oil Corp , will shut 1.85 million tonne a year hydrocraker later in January for a month to raise the capacity to 2.25 million tonnes and link it up to a delayed coker, a company spokesman said.

He refused to comment on the shutdown of the crude and other processing unit.

The shutdown of the hydrocracker will cut the feed for some secondary processing units, forcing the refiner to reduce oil processing, the source added.

CPCL will use the shutdown period to carry out maintenance at one of its crude units and some other processing units, the source said.

Because of the planned shutdown IOC has secured imports of gasoil on the country's east coast.

(Reporting by Nidhi Verma, editing by David Evans)