Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals to shut 1,20,000-bpd crude unit in April for 10 days

Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals (MRPL) plans to shut a crude distillation unit (CDU), with a capacity of 1,20,000 barrel per day, for about 10 days from early April for planned maintenance, its head of refinery operations said on Friday.

MRPL, a subsidiary of state-run refiner Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), runs a coastal refinery in Karnataka with a capacity of 3,00,000 bpd.

The refiner also plans to shut a hydrocracker at the refinery that has a capacity of 1.6 million tonnes a year and produces middle distillates such as diesel for minor work, Vijay G Joshi told Reuters.

MRPL has three CDUs and two hydrocrackers.

"We will use the opportunity to do some minor jobs on the hydrocracker... Also, some job needs to be done at our captive power plant," Joshi said.

MRPL's product supply commitments would not be affected by the shutdown, he added.

The refinery operations head said MRPL also plans to shut its second hydrocrakcer, with a capacity of 1.2 million tonnes a year, in the October-December quarter for catalyst replacement - which typically takes 30-45 days.

(Reuters)