BORL plans capacity expansion at Bina refinery
Bharat Oman Refineries Ltd. (BORL), a joint venture of Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd. and Oman Oil Company SAOC, is planning a two-phased project to expand crude oil processing capacity at its 6 million-tonne/year refinery at Bina, Madya Pradesh, India (OGJ Online, July 8, 2010).
BORL met with state and federal officials on Jan. 14 to discuss the expansion project, according to a statement from India’s Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas.
The project’s first phase, to be completed by 2018, would cost an estimated 35 billion rupees and boost the plant’s capacity to 7.8 million tpy, the ministry said.
A proposed second phase of the project, designed to increase capacity to 15 million tpy, would require an investment of 180-200 billion rupees.
During the Jan. 14 meeting, BORL also requested the state government of Madhya Pradesh to provide a series of incentives for the proposed expansion project, such an interest-free loan and exemptions from certain state-levied taxes.
A timeframe for a fully completed expansion of the refinery was not disclosed, as prefeasibility studies for the project’s second phase are not scheduled to begin for 3 months, according to the ministry.
In addition to its current 6 million-tpy crude distillation capacity, the Bina refinery includes the following unit capacities:
• Hydrocracking, 1.95 million tpy.
• Diesel hydrotreating, 1.63 million tpy.
• Delayed coking, 1.36 million tpy.
• Hydrogen, 70,000 tpy.
• Naphtha hydrotreating, 1 million tpy.
• Continuous catalytic reforming, 540,000 tpy.
• Isomerization, 310,000 tpy.
• Sulfur recovery, 360,000 tpy (divided between two 180,000-tpy units).
