After commissioning a few additional secondary units designed to upgrade fuels, Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL), an Indian oil company, hopes to run its 15 million metric tonnes per year (tpy) Vizag refinery at full capacity early next year, its head of refineries said.
By replacing an outdated unit with a new 9 million tonnes per year crude unit in March, the state-controlled refiner increased the capacity of the Vizag facility in Southern India’s crude processing from 8.33 million tonnes per year, S. Bharathan told reporters at an event.
Refinery operations at full scale will increase HPCL’s crude imports and enable it to process fuel oil to produce expensive refined products such as gasoline and gasoil, helping boost the company’s profit margin.
In two months, HPCL will commission a 3.5 million tpy hydrocracker, a sulphur recovery unit, and a hydrogen unit, said Bharathan. A residue hydrocracker of similar capacity will also be commissioned by the end of this year, he added.
The two hydrocrackers will upgrade heavier feeds such as vacuum gasoil and bitumen into value-added fuels such as jet fuel, gasoline, and diesel.
