MRPL starts delayed coker at Mangalore refinery

Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals Ltd. (MRPL), a subsidiary of Oil & Natural Gas Corp. Ltd., has commissioned a 3 million tonne/year delayed coking unit (DCU) that is part of a long-delayed project to expand its 194,000-b/d refinery in Mangalore, India (OGJ Online, June 8, 2010).

A major secondary processing unit of MRPL’s Phase 3 expansion project at Mangalore, the DCU began operations on Apr. 3, the company said.

The unit, which required an investment of about 11.7 billion rupees, was built by Toyo Engineers Ltd. and Punj Lloyd, and uses technology supplied by Lummus Technology, according to MRPL.

The company said a sustained unavailability of steam and power from a captive power plant (CPP) at the refinery site delayed the coker’s start-up (OGJ Online, Feb. 10, 2014).

While a crude distillation unit, diesel hydrotreater, and hydrogen units of the Phase 3 expansion have been in operation, a sulfur recovery unit and coker gas oil treating units will be commissioned soon, MRPL said.

Additionally, precommissioning activities for Phase 3’s fluid catalytic cracker are under way, with the unit expected to come on line by the end of this month, according to the company.

MRPL also said an integrated polypropylene unit included in the expansion is now 95% mechanically completed and will be commissioned in July.

The Phase 3 expansion project, announced in February 2010 (OGJ Online, June 8, 2010), was designed to increase the refinery’s complexity and profitability by increasing refining capacity to 300,000 b/d as well as equip the plant to process lower-cost heavy, sour, and high-TAN crudes, according to past MRPL annual reports.