IOC lets contract for Barauni refinery capacity expansion project
State-owned Indian Oil Corp. Ltd. (IOC) has let a contract to Larsen & Toubro Ltd. subsidiary L&T Hydrocarbon Engineering (LTHE) for a major unit to be installed as part of IOC’s previously announced project to increase crude oil processing capacity at its 6 million-tonne/year (tpy) Barauni refinery in Begusarai District, Bihar (OGJ Online, Aug. 11, 2015).
As part of the lump-sum turnkey contract, LTHE will provide engineering, procurement, construction, and commissioning (EPCC) services for the a new 9 million-tpy atmospheric-vacuum distillation unit (AVU) and associated installations (EPCC-1 Package) to be installed as part of the expansion project, Larsen & Toubro said on Apr. 8.
While it did not disclose a specific price of the EPCC contract, the service company did value the overall order at between 25-50 billion rupees.
The contract award follows IOC’s Jan. 30 official approval of the proposed 137.79 billion-rupee (±10%) project to expand crude processing capacity by 3 million tpy to 9 million tpy as well as add downstream polymer units at the Barauni refinery (OGJ Online, Feb. 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 AVU to replace the refinery’s three existing AVUs, which will be idled.
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.
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 (PP) 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.
IOC also previously let a contract to McDermott International Inc. to provide technology licensing, basic engineering design, and catalyst for the proposed 200,000-tpy PP unit to be added as part of the capacity expansion project (OGJ Online, Jan. 4, 2019).
Designed to help meet growing domestic demand for petroleum products in India, the Barauni crude processing capacity expansion is currently scheduled for commissioning by April 2023, IOC said.
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.
