India's IOC to Expand Panipat Refinery 25%

Nidhi Verma, Reuters

State-run Indian Oil Corp plans to shut half of its 240,000-bpd in northern India for 45-50 days in March-April next year to raise its capacity to 300,000 bpd, its head of refineries said on Tuesday.

"It will be a major shutdown. We were planning to do it in December but we now plan to do it in March-April because of high seasonal demand for refined products in December," B.N. Bankapur, told reporters.

He said the Panipat refinery in Haryana state would shut one 120,000 bpd crude distillation unit as well as a hydrocracker and a delayed coker unit for revamp.

Some other secondary units and another 120,000 bpd crude unit at the same refinery will be shut for about 20-22 days in September for routine maintenance and upgrading fuel quality.

Almost all state-run refiners will shut down some of their units this financial year to upgrade fuel specifications.

India plans to introduce Euro IV compliant fuel in some states from April next year, while the rest of the country will switch over to Euro III compliant fuel.

IOC directly owns seven refineries with a combined capacity of 947,000 bpd.

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