India BPCL offers light diesel oil; unit restart seen delayed to Dec

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - India's Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd has offered light diesel oil (LDO) in a rare move following an extended shutdown of a secondary unit at its Mumbai refinery that could last until December, a source who tracks refined oil products said.

BPCL is looking to sell up to 33,000 tonnes of LDO for Oct. 27-30 loading from Mumbai through a tender closing on Oct. 18.

In August, the state-owned refiner shut a 6,000-tonnes-per day hydrocracker at its 120,000-barrel-per day (bpd) Mumbai refinery following a fire that left 40 people injured.

A hydrocracker is a unit needed to make middle distillates, namely diesel and jet fuel, while LDO, which is used as feedstock for the cracker, is a blend of gasoil and residual fuel often used as marine fuel or in industrial equipment.

The hydrocracker was previously expected to restart last month but this could now be delayed to early December, the same source said.

(Reporting by Seng Li Peng and Jessica Jaganathan; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)