Indian Oil to shut half of Panipat refinery from mid-Feb for maintenance

Indian Oil Corp, the country's top refiner, will shut half of its 300,000 barrels per day Panipat refinery in northern Haryana state for about a month from mid-February for maintenance, a company spokesman said.

The refiner will shut a 150,000 bpd crude unit. It will also shut a sulfur recovery unit, hydrocracker, diesel hydrotreater, and coker among others for planned maintenance.

During the shutdown IOC will mobilise naphtha from other plants for the 800,000 tonnes per annum cracker associated with the plant, a company source said.

From mid-March, IOC will shut one of eight heaters attached to its Panipat naphtha cracker for 45 days, the spokesman said.

The company source said the shutdown of one the heaters would curtail the refiner's naphtha production to 350 tonnes per hour from an average of about 400 tonnes per hour.