PRL - An environment friendly refinery

24 Apr, 2006

Pakistan Refinery Limited (PRL) was built and commissioned in October 1962 at Karachi in alliance with major foreign oil companies like Burmah Oil California, Texas Oil Corporation, Shell Petroleum Corporation and ESSO Standard Eastern Inc.
PRL is a hydro skimming refinery with a crude processing capacity of 50,000 barrels per operating day. The process configuration constitutes of Desalting, Crude distillation, Hydrodesulphurization, Platforming and LPG units. Though design primarily to process Iranian Light, it has acquired the ability to process a variety of imported and indigenous crude oils to produce products namely:
-- LPG
-- MS Unleaded 87 RON
-- Naphtha
-- Kerosene
-- JP-8
-- JP-1
-- MTT
-- HSD
-- Furnace oil
PRL, since inception has been the principle manufacture and supplier of petroleum products to the domestic market and Pakistan Defence Forces. It continues to serve the energy needs to the country with professional excellence and high degree of commitment. PRL takes pride in the completive edge over other competitors in respect of efficiency. Lower operating cost, high quality human resources, reliability and introduction of newer generation technologies.
PRL has demonstrated its excellence as a first rate Corporate Social Responsible Company and being the first in Oil sector who has signed the United Nations Global Compact. PRL is serving the community and demonstrating total commitment to the cause of Health, Safety, Environment and Quality. PRL is proud to be the leader in HSEQ Management System, being the first in Pakistan Oil sector to achieve integrated OHSAS-18001: 1999, ISO-14001: 2004 and ISO-9001: 2000 certifications.
To be the Refinery of first choice for all stakeholders
PRL is committed to remaining a leader in the oil refinery business of Pakistan by providing value added products that are environmentally friendly, and by protecting the interest of all stakeholders in a competitive market through sustainable development and quality human resources.
PRL is committed to the protection of environment and to ensure health and safety of it s employees, customers, contractors and communities where it operates and practice quality in all its business activities so as to exceed customer expectations.
PRL is also committed to comply with the applicable laws and requirement and work with the Government and other stakeholders in their development and implementation.
PRL is committed to continually improve the effectiveness of Health, Safety, Environment and Quality management system.
As a responsible corporate citizen, PRL has always been playing its role to improve the community services. In this connection, during the last financial year, PRL has undertaken following initiatives under its Corporate Social Responsibility initiative:
HEALTHL:
-- PRL has been providing support to Government Hospitals like Sindh Government Hospital Ibrahim Hyderi for the renovation of its OPD, Operation Theatre, Labour Room, Nursery, Laboratory and female ward along with necessary equipments.
-- PRL has also contributed in the form of donations to various institutions/Hospitals like Aga Khan Hospital, SIUT, LRBT and NGOs.
EDUCATION:
-- Support to the government schools and to the children registered in these schools in the form of books, notebooks, uniform, shoes, etc.
-- PRL has also been involved in constructing new classrooms in two government schools in surrounding community.
COMMUNITY SERVICE:
PRL has also contributed a huge amount in repairing the Korangi Creek Road, which had been badly damaged due to heavy rains.
NATURAL CATASTROPHE:
PRL has also helped generously in natural catastrophe within and outside Pakistan.
DEVASTATING TSUNAMI:
PRL employees have donated their one-day salary and the Company has donated a sum of Rs 10 million to help the Asian tsunami's unfortunate affected people in their difficult times.
EARTHQUAKE VICTIMS:
Donated a sum of Rs 1 million in cash, two containers loaded with basic necessity items such as rice, wheat, flour, cloth, blankets, medicines, etc. In addition to the donation made by PRL, its employees have also contributed their two-days gross salary.
REFINERY PRODUCES THREE FRACTIONS FROM THE PRIMARY FRACTIONATING COLUMN:
1. Residue from the bottom, which is used as Fuel Oil.
2. Gas oil from the side stripper, used as High Speed Diesel (HSD) engine oil
3. Combined Kerosene, Naphtha, Gasoline and Gas fraction from the top, which is used as feedstock for the Catalytic Hydrodesulophurizer Unit
DESULFURIZED PRODUCTS IS FURTHER FRACTIONATED TO PRODUCE:
1. Kerosene from the bottom, which is suitable for use as Aviation Turbine fuel and also for cooking and illumination
2. Unstabilized gasoline from the top.
3. Naphtha from the side, which is used as feedstock for the Platforming Unit
The Unstabilized Gasoline is further stabilised to produce:
1. Gasoline from the bottom, which is suitable for use in Motor Spirit production
2. LPG and Fuel Gs from the top, which are then separated
PRODUCTION:
The objective of the oil refining process is to separate the crude oil into number of fractions, each of which then contains a narrower range of hydrocarbons, which are more suitable for conversions into saleable products
The oil consumption in the country has posted an overall growth of 9.4% due to recovery of economy, as GDP growth was 8.4%. The production level of the company has been optimised according to the economic requirement.



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CRUDE RECIPE (% age)
Arabian Light 53%
Iraninan Light 15%
Murban 26%
Local Crude 6%
PRODUCTS (% age)
LPG 0.7%
Naphtha 7.6%
MS 6.2%
JP-4 3.6%
Kerosene/JP-1/ 10.2%
HSD 30.0%
FO 41.7%
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Crude throughput during the year was 2.15 Million Tons as PRL introduced light and sweet crude Murban to extract favourable product yield structure. The financial benefit of this strategy decision has resulted in better profitability
The high fuel consumption is a cause of great concern for the company's profitability and steps are being taken to address this issue. Various options to upgrade Fuel oil into value added products and to meet the upcoming product quality challenges are under study.
FINANCIAL RESULTS:
Company has managed to deliver an encouraging performance despite unfavourable external factors with profit after tax of Rs 1722 Million in FY 2004-2005 compared to Rs 733 Million in FY 2004-2004.
The positive impact of profitability is visible in the shape of improve liquidity and significant reduction in financial charges.
The company has achieved the highest ever profit after tax of Rs 1722 Million, during FY 2004-2005, an increase of 135% higher than FY 2004-2004 due to better refining margins, applicable to topping/reforming refineries in the region and efficacy factors built in the operation of PRL.
The continuation of the Refinery Tariff Protection Formula, various efficiency improvement steps and sustained management efforts has contributed to achieving this profitability.
ACHIEVEMENTS:
-- Implementation of integrated HSEQ Management systems conforming to ISO-9001: 2000, ISO-14001: 2004 and OHSAS-18001: 1999 standards for whole Refinery.
-- ACCA-WWF Best Pakistan Environmental Reporting Award (PERA) 2004 and 2005 in local listed company.
-- Achieved the target of Ten Million man-hours with out LTI and now 10.2 Million Man-hours with out LTI till to date.
-- Induction of Desalting Unit to improve quality of Fuel Oil on respect to salt contents.
-- Modifications of crude heaters to increase HSD yield by 2% & improve efficiency by 10%.
-- Introduction of DCS and Advance Process Controller at Crude Distillation Unit to operate the unit efficiently and economically.
-- Installation of Desalination Plant, which currently meets 30% of Refinery's water needs
-- Revamp of Platformer Unit to increase its throughput from 340 MTSD to 400 MTSD
-- Installation of a Texas Tower to improve Energy efficiency
-- All furnace equipped with low Noise, High Efficiency burners
-- State of the art Effluent Water Treatment Plant (EWTP) installed at Korangi Refinery to bring down the effluents pollutants within NEQS limits.
-- Domestic Waste Water Treatment Plant installed at Keamari Terminal
-- DCS installed on all the three Boilers to operate efficiently.
-- Rerouting of JP-1 line to Karachi Air port
-- Reliability Centered Maintenance software for preventive and reliable maintenance and to increase the cycle length from 30 months to 52 months.
-- Implementation of Paper less environment policy within the Refinery.
-- Installation of CFC free air conditioner in Main Office Building.
FUTURE PROJECTS
UPGRADATION PROJECT:

PRL is actively engaged in collaboration with Foster Wheeler Energy Ltd (FWEL) and USTDA to conduct feasibility study for the Refinery Fuel Oil Up gradation. PRL is intended to modify the refinery-processing scheme to improve its bottom of barrel processing by incorporation of Carbon rejection and Hydrogen addition technologies in its original configuration consisting a Hydro skimming and Catalytic reforming units with Utilities & offsite to improve distillate yields. THE OVERALL OBJECTIVES TO INSTALL NEW FACILITIES ARE AS UNDER:
-- Minimise fuel oil production
-- Maximise middle distillate production
-- Meet upcoming Diesel Sulfur specifications
-- Meet the futuristic Mogas specification w.r.t Benzene and aromatics
-- Conservation of Natural Resources & Energy
-- Recycling of Effluent water is being planned.
-- For the conservation of Natural resources ie Fossil fuel, energy conservation project is under installation process to recover the Waste Heat from Platformer and crude Furnace.
OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE:
-- Turn Around Cycle length to be increased to 52 months.
HEALTH, SAFETY, ENVIRONMENT & QUALITY MANGEMNT SYSTEM:
At PRL HSEQ Management System is an integration of ISO-14001: 2004, OHSAS-18001: 1999 and ISO-9001: 2000. The scope covers refining, Storage and distribution of Crude oil and Petroleum products at Korangi Refinery and Keamari Terminal.

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