IOC plans major maintenance at plants in FY14

State-run Indian Oil Corp is planning major maintenance at its refineries in the fiscal year that began on April 1, including a complete shutdown of its 160,000-barrels per day (bpd) Mathura plant, a company source said on Tuesday.

India's largest refiner will shut its sole crude unit at the Mathura plant for about 45 days from the end of August, said the source, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Repair work at the Mathura refinery will begin with the shutdown of a fluidised catalytic cracker (FCC) in mid-August for about two months, the source said. The firm also planned to shut other attached downstream units at the refinery, he added.

"Because of the Mathura refinery shutdown from August to October, we are not planning to touch other plants. We will try to meet demand in northern India from other plants and by buying more from private refiners," the source said.

IOC will shut a 35,000-bpd crude unit and some secondary units at its 120,000-bpd Barauni refinery from Wednesday or Thursday for about a month, the source said.

The refiner plans a second round of maintenance at Barauni, including a month-long shutdown of a 50,000 bpd crude unit, in February and March, he said. The refinery, in the eastern state of Bihar, has three crude units.

Maintenance work at the firm's Koyali plant in the western state of Gujarat will also be done in two stages, the source said.

From mid-June, a 54,000 bpd crude unit and a hydrocracker at Koyali will be offline for maintenance for 30 to 35 days while three more crude units at the plant will be shut during January and February, he said. Koyali has five crude units.

The refiner has plans to shut some secondary units, including an FCC at Koyali in January and February for up to 35 days, he added.

"We may defer our maintenance programme planned for the January-March quarter to next fiscal as generally in the last quarter our aim is to meet the annual throughput target," he said, referring to a target set by the government.

In May and June IOC plans to shut an FCC, a reformer and a diesel desulphuriser at its coastal Haldia refinery, resulting in a 68,000-bpd crude unit being idle for about a fortnight in June, he said.

The refiner is not planning to shut any crude unit at its biggest refinery, the 300,000-bpd Panipat facility, but its throughput will be lower in December, because of a shutdown of the secondary units.

"We have to take a call whether a 150,000-bpd crude unit at the plant will remain idle or we will operate it at a lower rate," he added.

IOC plans to shut an FCC at Panipat for 10 days in April because of catalyst replacement at a hydrogen unit and again for 21 days in November, he said. Its hydrocracker will remain idle for 4 days in April and will be down for catalyst replacement in November, he added.

The plan is tentative, the source said, and exact shutdown dates will be decided later, depending on the demand-supply scenario and weather conditions.