Update: RIL says diesel hydro-treating Unit -II operating at full capacity

26 Oct 2006

Mumbai: According to Reliance Industries Ltd, the diesel hydro-treating Unit -II at its Jamnagar refinery has been restarted today and is operating at full throughput. This unit was temporarily shutdown yesterday.

In a a press communiqué, RIL has praised its refinery personnel for demonstrating exemplary performance.

The communiqué says, "Certain inaccurate reports have been published by a section of the media in the last 24 hours. In the interest of all its stakeholders, RIL would like to clarify and remove any confusion created. We would like to make it abundantly clear that:

  • The RIL Refinery has not been shutdown. There is no need for a shutdown.
  • The LPG production at the RIL's Refinery complex continues to be normal at an average
    production rate of over 7,000 tonnes per day.
  • All sales and other commitments of the RIL Refinery are being adhered to without any
  • The Refinery has enough flexibility built into its configuration to allow normal operations as per its usual heavy & sour crude slate and premium-grade product mix.

The restoration work at the location of the fire is going on in full-swing. companies."

RIL's Jamnagar refinery has a capacity of 33mt / annum and has two trains of production line. The fire broke out at the second train's vacuum gas and oil hydro-treator.

RIL produces 12 per cent of India's LPG demand. The government had estimated a shortfall of 100,000 tonnes of LPG due to this incident. However, RIL says that there will be no disruption in LPG supplies from the Jamnagar refinery. RIL also says that the integrated refinery has an in-built space for process inventory. The company also adds that it has 2-3 weeks of process inventory to maintain plant without any interruptions.

The entire refinery is under comprehensive insurance cover and the insurance covers losses from production and profit losses. However, the extent of damage would be ascertained in the next three or four days as the unit needs to be cooled.