With the deadline fast nearing, HPCL Visakh Refinery is gearing up to meet the deadline for supply of Bharat Stage-VI (BS-VI) compliant fuels as per the emission standards fixed by the European Union.
Hectic preparations are under way by the oil companies to make use of BS-VI-compliant fuels by April 1. Already, most of the fuel pumps in Visakhapatnam are selling fuel that meets EU-prescribed standards. Visakh Refinery plays a key role in meeting fuel requirement of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Chhattisgarh. Whenever required, it also sends fuel by tanker ships to Chennai, Kochi, Mangalore and other ports for use by other oil companies as part of an arrangement whenever such a need arises. It also supplies through pipelines to various destinations in South India.
"We are confident of making it 100% the supply of BS-VI-compliant fuels by April 1," HPCL Visakha retail regional head Ravi Shankar Pammi said. He said they had always accorded top priority to supply of clean fuel and meeting the emission standards.
To meet the increasing demand for supply, HPCL is implementing its Visakh Refinery Modernisation Project on a fast-track mode with an investment of ₹20,928 crore. The Project Management Consultancy was awarded to Engineers India Ltd over three years ago, and is scheduled to be completed by July this year.
The project will expand the present capacity of the refinery from 8.33 million tonne per annum to 15 mtpa. The brownfield project will also have revamp and capacity expansion of existing units, augmentation of utilities systems, integrated effluent treatment system, captive power and associated facilities.
As part of the project, the refinery will have a 9 mtpa Crude Distilation Unit replacing one among three CDUs, a 3.3 mtpa vacuum gas oil hydrocracker unit and a 2.9 mtpa naphtha isomerisation unit.
Larsen and Toubro has completed and flagged off to HPCL an 1,885-tonne hydrocracker reactor considered to be the country’s heaviest for VRMP.
