HPCL, Rajasthan state plan groundbreaking for Barmer integrated complex

HPCL Rajasthan Refinery Ltd (HRRL), a 74-26% joint venture of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) and the state government of Rajasthan, will kick off construction activities in mid-January on the JV’s previously announced project to set up a nine million-tonne/year integrated refinery and petrochemical complex at Pachpadra Tehsil, Barmer District, Rajasthan.

 

A groundbreaking ceremony for the Barmer integrated complex is scheduled for the 16th January, India’s Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas (MOPNG) said.

 

Start of construction on the 431.29 billion-rupee complex follows a series of setbacks and technical revisions plaguing the project which, first conceived in 2006, did not receive official environmental clearance to proceed from India’s Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change (MOEFCC) until recently.

 

Once completed, the refinery – which will take about four years to build – will be equipped to produce Bharat Stage 6-grade (equivalent to Euro 6-quality) fuels from a feedstock of both locally produced and Saudi Arabian crudes to meet increased demand for petroleum products in Rajasthan as well as other northern Indian states.

 

During its first eight years of operation, the refinery will be designed to process 1.5 million tpy of Rajasthan crude from nearby Mangla fields and 7.5 million tpy of imported Arab Mix crude – consisting of Arab Light and Arab Heavy grades – before switching to a full 9 million-tpy feedstock slate of Arab Mix beginning in its ninth year of operation, according to documents filed with MOEFCC.

 

The Barmer refinery is scheduled for start-up sometime in 2022.

 

Processing overview

According to Engineers India Ltd’s revised environmental impact assessment for the Barmer project filed with MOEFCC in July 2017, the complex will include the following nameplate processing capacities:

  • Crude distillation, 9 million tpy.
  • Vacuum distillation, 4.8 million tpy.
  • Naphtha hydro-treating, 1.8 million tpy.
  • Isomerisation, 260,000 tpy.
  • Continuous catalyst regeneration reforming, 300,000 tpy.
  • Diesel hydro-treating, 4.1 million tpy.
  • Fluid catalytic cracking, 2.9 million tpy.
  • Delayed coking, 2.4 million tpy.
  • Polypropylene (two units), 490,000 tpy each
  • Butene-1, 59,000 tpy.
  • Linear low-density/high-density polyethylene (two swing units), 416,000 tpy each.
  • Vacuum gas oil hydro-treating, 3.5 million tpy.
  • Dual-feed steam cracking, 820,000 tpy.
  • Low-pressure ethylene recovery, 77,000 tpy.
  • Benzene recovery, 96,000 tpy.
  • Pyrolysis gasoline hydro-treating, 550,000 tpy.
  • BTX fractionation, 550,000 tpy.
  • FCC gasoline depantanising, 870,000 tpy.
  • Gasoline hydro-treating, 530,000 tpy.
  • FCC C5 Merox, 220,000 tpy.
  • Saturated LPG Merox, 162,000 tpy.
  • LPG de-propanising, 162,000 tpy.
  • Fuel gas treating, 1,425 tonnes/day.
  • Hydrogen generation, 37,000 tpy
  • Pressure-swing adsorption, 28,000 tpy.
  • Sour-water stripping (hydro-processing), 100 cu m/hr.
  • Sour-water stripping (non-hydro-processing), 250 cu m/hr.
  • Amine regeneration (three units), 480 cu m/hr each.
  • Sulphur recovery with tail-gas treatment (two units), 199 tonnes/day each.