Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL), Mumbai, is planning to shut down a crude unit for scheduled maintenance beginning in May at one of the two refineries that form part of its 60 million-tonne/year integrated refining and petrochemical complex at Jamnagar in Gujarat, India.
On May 1, the company will shut down a crude distillation unit for routine maintenance and inspection activities at the 27 million-tpy Special Economic Zone (SEZ) refinery of the Jamnagar complex, RIL said in an Apr. 18 filing to India’s BSE Ltd. (formerly Bombay Stock Exchange).
RIL does not anticipate any impacts to commercial commitments during the scheduled 3-week shutdown, as the three remaining crude units as well as all secondary processing units at the complex will continue operate at normal throughput rates during the unit’s closure, the company said.
RIL disclosed no additional details regarding the specific types of maintenance or inspections it plans to undertake during the planned shutdown.
In addition to the SEZ refinery, the integrated complex includes the 33 million-tpy Jamnagar refinery as well as a series of associated petrochemical production units.
RIL continues to progress on work related to the Phase 3 expansion project at the Jamnagar complex, which aims to boost the site’s production capacities for ethylene and other petroleum products, including expansions of Jamnagar’s gasification plants, ethylene cracker complex, and paraxylene plant (OGJ Online, Feb. 26, 2015).
The refinery off-gas cracker expansion would increase Jamnagar’s production capacities as follows: ethylene to 3.248 million tpy from 1.883 million tpy; propylene to 913,000 tpy from 759,000 tpy; monoethylene glycol to 1.466 million tpy from 733,000 tpy; low-density polyethylene to 590,000 tpy from 190,000 tpy; high-density and linear low-density polyethylene to 1.478 million tpy from 928,000 tpy; and paraxylene to 3.656 million tpy from 1.856 million tpy (OGJ Online, May 3, 2012).
As of the 9-month period ending on Dec. 31, the Jamnagar complex reached record processing rates for crude, with of the complex’s refineries operating at 116% of Jamnagar’s total combined nameplate capacity, RIL said in its latest presentation to investors on Jan. 16.
Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].
