MOSCOW (MRC) -- India's Hindustan Petroleum Corp.'s Mumbai refinery will start full scale operation at a higher capacity of 190,000 barrels per day (bpd) by end-June or in July, reported Reuters with reference to the company's chairman M. K. Surana's statement.
HPCL had fully shut the 150,000 bpd Mumbai refinery in western Maharashtra from April 1 for maintenance and capacity expansion, Surana said at a press conference to announce March quarter earnings.
"One crude unit of 3.5 million tonnes (70,000 bpd) is under commissioning and we are revamping the second unit to add capacity," he said. The state-run refiner aims to add 40,000 bpd capacity to the second crude unit.
He also said the company is operating its 166,000 bpd Vizag refinery in southern India at full capacity. Meanwhile, HPCL is in process of raising the capacity of the Vizag refinery to 300,000 bpd. Surana said the expansion will be completed in this fiscal year to March 2022 while the residue upgradation facility at the Vizag plant is also likely to be completed in 2022.
In addition, HPCL is building a 180,000 bpd refinery and petrochemical plant in desert state of Rajasthan.
As MRC informed previously, India's HPCL-Mittal Energy Limited, or HMEL, will start a new 500,000 mt/year polypropylene (PP) plant in Bhatinda in 2021. The company has an existing 440,000 mt/year PP unit at the same site.
Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 576,270 tonnes in the first three month of 2021, up by 4% year on year. Low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) shipments increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market totalled 410,890 tonnes in January-March 2021, up by 56% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased.
MRC