HMEL restarts refinery after extended maintenance

HMEL had shut its 180,000 barrels per day Bathinda refinery in late June

HPCL-Mittal Energy Ltd (HMEL) fully restarted its refinery about two weeks ago, a top company official said, after an unplanned shutdown that lasted more than 100 days.

HMEL had shut its 180,000 barrels per day (bpd) Bathinda refinery in late-June, for what was expected to be for a four- to six-week period, after operating the plant at a reduced capacity following a fire.

"We did not do (expansions) as it was an unexpected shutdown and it just happened. We just fixed things and came back up," Martin Hawkins, HMEL's chief operating officer, said on the sidelines of the Downstream and Petrochemical conference in Singapore on Wednesday.

"There won't be any major (planned) shutdowns next year. There's no need for it."

When asked whether HMEL would look to export more following India's move to scrap diesel subsidies, Hawkins said the firm would prefer to maintain its domestic sales.

"I see us as only keeping our products in the domestic markets. I would not exclude exports because that's another market," he said, referring to overseas sales of diesel.

"But I think that for us, the closer we can sell our products to home, the better. Lowers the transportation costs. If we do have to export, then the export markets would have to have a high enough price to be competitive with our local markets plus the transportation (cost) to reach those markets."

He added that he does not expect consumers to hold off on hydrocarbon purchases for very long just because of the current bearish outlook for crude prices, which have plunged more than 25% since June amid a global supply glut.

"I am a fan of low crude prices. Lower crude prices in general are good for the world economy and I think they can be good for refiners too."

Hawkins said that HMEL has fully secured its term crude purchases for next year, which he estimated would account for about a third of the firm's total crude imports for the period.