India's Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) plans to shut a 120,000 barrels a day crude distillation unit (CDU) for a week from end-March for planned maintenance, its managing director said on March 20.
MRPL, a subsidiary of state-run exploration firm Oil and Natural Gas Corp, runs a coastal refinery in the southern Karnataka state with a capacity of nearly 194,000 bpd.
The firm also plans to shut a 1.23 million tonnes a year hydrocracker at the refinery, which produces middle distillates like diesel, around the same time for 15-20 days, R. Rajamani said. "We have to complete the crude processing target for this year. We will shut CDU and hydrocracker in the last week of this month or towards the end of this month," he said.
In the previous financial year, the firm's refinery processed 250,800 bpd of crude. "For the current year (2007/08) it will be a little more than last year, around 12.55 million tonnes or just across this, that's what our planning is," he added. Rajamani said supplies would not be disrupted because of the shutdown.