Indian Oil lets contract for new units at Barauni refinery
Indian Oil Corp. Ltd. (IOC) has let an additional contract to McDermott International Ltd. to provide engineering, procurement, construction, and commissioning (EPCC) services for new units to be added as part of IOC’s project to increase crude oil processing capacity at its 6-million tonne/year (tpy) Barauni refinery in Begusarai District, Bihar. (OGJ Online, June 14, 2021).
As part of the Aug. 5 contract, McDermott will deliver EPCC for implementation of a new naphtha hydrotreating unit, isomerization unit, and associated installations for the project McDermott said.
Alongside EPCC services, McDermott’s scope of work under the contract—which is scheduled to begin this quarter—also includes project management, residual process design, fabrication, installation, inspection, and all processes through to mechanical completion, according to the service provider.
This most recent contract follows IOC’s June award to McDermott for delivery of EPCC services on a new diesel hydrotreating unit and associated installations included in the expansion.
Barauni expansion overview
Officially approved in 2020, the 148.10-billion rupee Barauni refinery expansion will increase crude processing capacity by 3 million tpy to 9 million tpy as well as add downstream polymer units at the site as part of IOC’s strategy to help meet growing domestic demand for petroleum products in India (OGJ Online, Aug. 3, 2020).
According to the latest project documents available from IOC, India’s Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change (EFCC), and Envirotech East Pvt. Ltd.—which completed the project’s environmental impact assessment study in November 2018—the Barauni capacity expansion will include construction of the new 9-million tpy atmospheric-vacuum distillation unit (AVU) to replace the refinery’s three existing AVUs, which will be idled (OGJ Online, Apr. 8, 2020).
Alongside addition of the new 1.2-million tpy diesel hydrotreating unit, the project also entails installation of major grassroots units, including:
- Two new sulfur recovery units, each with a capacity of 80 tonnes/day.
- A new 304,000-tpy isomerization unit.
- A new 360,000-tpy NHDT unit designed to treat naphtha feed moving specifically to the isomerization unit.
- A new 1.2-million tpy diesel hydrotreating unit.
- A new 61,000-tpy hydrogen generation unit.
- A new 1-million tpy once-through hydrocracking unit.
- A new 562,000-tpy propylene recovery unit.
- A new 200,000-tpy polypropylene unit.
- A new 390,000-tpy LPG treatment unit.
- A new 880,000-tpy naphtha splitting unit.
- A new 500-tonnes/hr amine recovery unit.
- A new 220-tonnes/hr sour water stripping unit.
- A new 6,178-kg/hr flue gas amine treating unit.
The expansion project also will involve revamps and upgrades to increase capacity of current units at the refinery, including:
- Expanding the refinery’s existing 210,000-tpy naphtha hydrotreating (NHDT) and catalytic reforming combined capacity to 300,000 tpy.
- Expanding capacity of the existing 1.4-million tpy residue fluid catalytic cracking unit to 1.7 million tpy.
- Expanding capacity of the existing 500,000-tpy Coker B to 662,000 tpy (OGJ Online, Apr. 7, 2021).
The Barauni crude processing capacity expansion currently remains on schedule for commissioning by April 2023, IOC recently told investors.
Robert Brelsford | Downstream Editor
Robert Brelsford joined Oil & Gas Journal in October 2013 as downstream technology editor after 8 years as a crude oil price and news reporter on spot crude transactions at the US Gulf Coast, West Coast, Canadian, and Latin American markets. He holds a BA (2000) in English from Rice University and an MS (2003) in education and social policy from Northwestern University.
