Indian Oil lets contract for Barauni refinery expansion
Update: The entirety of the Barauni crude processing capacity expansion currently remains on schedule for commissioning by April 2023 at an overall cost of 148 billion rupees, IOC told investors (OGJ Online, Jan. 6, 2022).
State-owned Indian Oil Corp. Ltd. (IOC) has let a contract to Technip Energies NV to provide engineering, procurement, construction, and commissioning (EPCC) services for new units 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).
Valued at between €50-250 million, the contract covers EPCC for a new 1-million tpy, once-through hydrocracking unit (OHCU), a fuel gas treatment unit, and associated facilities that, in combination with other downstream units, will enable the refinery to produce Stage VI (BS VI, equivalent to Euro 6-quality standards) fuels as well as petrochemicals such as polypropylene, Technip Energies said on Apr. 6.
While Technip Energies did not reveal a duration of the EPCC contract, the service provider did confirm the contract value has been included in its first-quarter 2021 results.
Project background
The latest contract award follows IOC’s 2020 official approval of the now 148.10-billion rupee (up from a previous 137.79 billion rupees) 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; Jan. 4, 2019).
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).
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 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.
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 (OGJ Online, Aug. 3, 2020).
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.
