Bharat Petroleum inaugurates new crude distillation unit in Mumbai

On December 28, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd’s (BPCL) new state-of-the-art Crude Distillation Unit (CDU) at the Mumbai Refinery was inaugurated by Devendra Fadnavis, chief minister of Maharashtra and Dharmendra Pradhan, minister of State (I/C) for Petroleum and Natural Gas.

The unit with a capacity of 6.0 MMTPA, and developed at a cost of Rs 1419 crore, replaces the old crude and vacuum units of the refinery. Also present on the occasion were members of Parliament Arvind Sawant, Rahul Shewale, Gopal Shetty and MLA from Chembur, Prakash Phaterpekar. 

This BPCL refinery was commissioned in 1955 by Burmah Shell Refineries Ltd with a capacity of 2.2 MMTPA. After nationalisation in 1976, the refinery has progressively expanded through low cost revamps and adoption of new technologies. Currently, it has an installed capacity of 12.0 MMTPA with three crude and vacuum distillation units with matching secondary processing and treatment facilities. 

According to BPCL, the commissioning of this new CDU would ensure cleaner environment and efficient use of energy with lower emissions and reduction in energy consumption. The sulphur dioxide emission from this new unit would be less than 10.5 mt/d – the lowest in the country amongst all the refineries. Tightly heat integrated with furnaces of higher efficiency, the reduction in energy consumption in terms of Liquid Fuel Equivalent (LFE) is expected to be about 30%, which results into estimated savings of Rs 128 crore per annum on fuel consumption. 

The integral part of this new CDU is its superior design and safety features. This has resulted in significantly lesser number of equipment as compared to older units and facilitates better turnaround management during shutdown and routine maintenance. The unit is designed with the latest safety features like blast-proof control room and closed drainage system, thus making it an efficient, intrinsically safe and sustainable unit, with higher distillate yield of 3% and thus contributing to higher Refining margins. 

BPCL says the stabilisation of this unit would help in dismantling the old 1955 CDU units, thereby creating space for refinery modernisation to meet future auto fuel norms and other profitability enhancing projects.

Speaking on the occasion, Dharmendra Pradhan, minister of State (I/C) for Petroleum and Natural Gas,  announced a plan of setting up of a new refinery in Maharashtra. Maharashtra’s chief minister Devendra Fadnavis assured provision of land and other facilities for the proposed new refinery.