Attock Refiney Limited: Pioneer & Pacesetter

Message from M. Adilkhattak, Chief Executive Officer

TEXT: Attock Refinery Limited (ARL) is the pioneer and pacesetter in Pakistan's petroleum refining sector. Since its inception in 1922, ARL continues its operations unabated despite various hurdles and challenges. Today it has grown into a modern state-of-the-art refinery with a nameplate capacity of 53,400 barrels per day (bpd).

The Refinery at Morgah started its operations with two small stills of 2,500 bpd following the first discovery of oil at Khaur by the Attock Oil Company in 1915. The Refinery was expanded in late thirties and early forties after discovery of oil in Dhulian in 1937. In 1939-40, 5,000 bpd Lummus Two-Stage-Distillation Unit, a Dubbs Thermal Cracker Unit, Wax Purification facility and the Edeleanu Solvent Extraction Unit for smoke point correction of Kerosene were added. With the addition of these units Morgah Refinery became a fully integrated refinery of high complexity producing a full range of petroleum fuels, lubricating oils, waxes, greases, solvent oil, mineral turpentine oil and various grades of bitumen.

In 1978 ARL was incorporated as a Private Limited Company and in June 1979 it was converted into a Public Limited Company.

Considering high potential for crude oil production in Meyal and Toot oilfields, in 1981 the capacity of Refinery was increased by the addition of two distillation units of 20,000 and 5,000 bpd capacity each. Due to changes in crude oil characteristics the old units of Dubbs, Edeleanu and plants for lube and wax production were closed down in 1986-88.

Another expansion and up gradation was completed in 1999 with the installation of a Heavy Crude Unit of 10,000 bpd and a Catalytic Reformer of 5,000 bpd. In 2000, a 7.5 MW Captive Power Plant was added. The latest Expansion/Up- gradation Project completed in November 2016 comprised i) Diesel Hydro Desulphurization (DHDS) unit ii) Pre-flash unit iii) Light Naphtha Isomerization unit and expansion of the Captive power plant by 18 MW.

ARL's current nameplate capacity stands at 53,400 bpd and it possesses the capability to process lightest to heaviest (10-65 API) crudes. The refinery continues to produce a full range of fuel products: LPG, Naphtha, PMG, HSD, Jet Fuels, FFO, Kerosene oil, LDO, MineralTurpentine Oil (MTT), Jute Batching Oil (JBO), various grades of road paving asphalts and Polymer Modified Bitumen (PMB). The Company is ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO/IEC17025, ISO 45001 certified and is the first refinery in Pakistan to implement ISO 50001 (Energy Management System).

With a turnover of Rs.128 Billion in 2020-21, the Company's contribution to the national exchequer in the form of taxes and duties amounted to over Rs. 67 billion while foreign exchange savings of US $ 115 million wereachieved through import substitution and exports. The Company not only operates on 100% indigenous crude oil thus providing a major outlet to several oilfields spread over the northern part of Pakistan but also remains the main source of petroleum products to the civil and defense sectors in the northern region of Pakistan. It is also a catalyst in the deployment of a large transportation fleet for crude oil and refined products movement. The dynamics of refinery business are constantly varying and changing with new challenges emerging due to environmental concerns, pandemic issues, economic recessions, globalisation,technological breakthroughs, alternate sources of energy and government policies. The spread of COVID-19 had a meltdown effect on global crude oil and product prices and severely impacted the refinery sector in Pakistan resulting in reduced margins.

ARL is fully cognizant of its responsibility to ensure its sustainability under the current economic circumstances. In this connection, the Company has taken several initiatives and implemented different economic and technological measures. Some of these measures include production of Euro III HSD, introduction of 95 RON petrol to its product profile, supply of Low Sulphur Furnace Oil at premium pricing, purchase of certain crude oil at discounted pricing, optimizing Reformer hydrogen internal usage and rationalization of production slate. Moreover, loss making export Naphtha operation has been restricted or curtailed through maximization of petrol production and maintaining refinery optimum throughput.

The Company is now gearing up toundertake another major project at an estimated cost of US$ 500 million for setting up Continuous Catalyst Regeneration Unit (CCR) and revamp of the DHDS unit to increase production of petrol and meet Euro-V products' specifications.

It is hoped that approval of the new Pakistan Oil Refining Policy would not only enable ARL to go ahead with the aforementioned project but also attract investment in upgradation of other existing refineries as well as new green field refineries.

We at ARL not only take pride in our 100 years of glorious past but also look forward to a bright future with continued support of the government, shareholders, board of directors and our outstanding human resource working relentlessly and with dedication in pursuit of excellence in an organizational culture of openness, fairness and meritocracy aligned with our core values of Integrity & Ethics, Quality Assurance, Learning & Innovation, Teamwork, Empowerment and Social Responsibility.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022