Indian Refiner Plans Maintenance In August And September

Indian state-owned refiner Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) plans maintenance at units of two of its refineries in August and September, a spokesman for the company told Reuters on Tuesday.

BPCL will shut down for maintenance half of the crude processing capacity at its refinery in Mumbai for one month beginning on September 21, the spokesman said. The Mumbai refinery operated by the state-held refiner has a capacity to process 240,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude.

BPCL will shut a crude unit with a capacity of 120,000 bpd at the facility, as well as a catalytic cracker, a fluid catalytic cracker (FCCU), and a continuous catalytic reformer, among other units, according to the company’s spokesperson.  

Before the crude processing unit shutdown, the Mumbai refinery will undergo a 15-day maintenance at a bitumen unit.

BPCL’s 310,000-bpd refinery in Kochi, in the southern Indian state of Kerala, will also see maintenance at an FCCU, diesel hydro desulphurizer, and vacuum gas oil hydrotreater. The maintenance is expected to take 12 days and begin on August 22, the refiner’s spokesman told Reuters.

The maintenance plans come just as India’s fuel demand is hitting record highs.

India’s fuel sales – a proxy for oil demand – surged in May from a year earlier and from April to new highs, suggesting that oil demand in the world’s third-largest crude importer is strengthening and could outperform expectations.   

Sales of diesel—the most widely used fuel in India—jumped by 13% year-on-year, and gasoline sales surged by 11%, both registering record sales volumes.

India’s fuel sales exceeded expectations in May and could have further upside considering the outperformance lately, per a note by Standard Chartered analysts Emily Ashford and Paul Horsnell quoted by Bloomberg.

“Indian demand is equally robust with the latest readings for May showing both gasoline and diesel breaking records,” the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in its Oil Market Report for June earlier this month. 

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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