Reliance Industries plans Jamnagar refinery shutdown starting late May

Reliance Industries is likely to begin maintenance shutdown at its Jamnagar refinery after Nayara Energy resumes operations, amid efforts to ensure fuel supplies

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is likely to begin a maintenance shutdown at its Jamnagar refinery in the second half of May, after operations resume at Nayara Energy’s Vadinar refinery, a senior government official said on Wednesday.

 

The government is ensuring refineries in the country do not shut down at the same time to guarantee fuel availability in the domestic market amid the ongoing West Asia conflict, said Sujata Sharma, joint secretary at the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG), during an inter-ministerial briefing. A refinery shutdown takes around three to four weeks to conclude.

 

Reliance operates the world’s largest integrated single-site refinery complex in Jamnagar, Gujarat, with a crude processing capacity of 1.4 million barrels per day (bpd).

 

“We try to ensure all refinery shutdowns don’t happen at one time so that supplies for the domestic market are not affected. Right now, Nayara Energy is under shutdown and it will come back by the middle of this month. Reliance shutdown will start then,” said Sharma.

 

Russia-backed Nayara Energy had shut its 400,000-barrels-per-day refinery for maintenance from April 9. Meanwhile, the Indian government in March had directed refineries operating in the country to maximise liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) production as the country scrambles to secure cooking gas supplies.

 

To ensure petrochemical supplies, about 12,000 tonnes of propylene and more than 1,750 tonnes of butyl acrylate have been sold by refineries in Mumbai, Kochi, Visakhapatnam, Chennai, Mathura and Gujarat to the chemical, pharmaceutical and paint industries since April 9. The government has also raised allocation of C3 and C4 molecules for these industries to 1,120 tonnes per day.