India ramps up oil sector divestment with BPCL’s subsidiary 9-mtpa expansion

INDIA, A MEMBER OF THE BRICS group of nations, which began its oil sector divestment is ramping up production and modernization of one of its state-run refineries, the Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL), carved out of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), a state-run oil refining undertaking under the ministry of petroleum and natural gas, India.

NRL, in which BPCL holds 61.65 per cent stake, while Oil India holds 26 per cent, and the government of Assam owns 12.35 per cent, has selected Axens of France, to supply advanced technologies in gasoline block for the Numaligarh Refinery expansion project (NREP).

Numaligarh refinery is located at Golaghat District in Assam (India) and was commissioned in 2000 with a capacity of 3 million tons-perannum (MTPA) to process local crude oil Assam. NRL is now expanding the refinery capacity from 3 MTPA to 9 MTPA by implementing in parallel a new refinery of 6 MTPA crude capacity with downstream grassroots facilities at the same location of the existing refinery in Golaghat, Assam.

India has 18 public sector refineries and five refineries in the private sector/ or as a joint venture. The largest refineries are RIL Jamnagar (Gujarat), NEL Vadinar (Gujarat) and IOC Panipat (Haryana). As part of its strategy to divest stake in state-run BPCL, which runs two large refineries, the Indian government last November (2020) decided to carve out NRL from BPCL.

Axens has provided key technologies to the Indian refineries for the production of clean fuels, especially to remove sulfur from gasoline pool to meet Bharat stage VI (BS VI) specifications. For the last two decades, Axens has developed a strong and trustful relationship with NRL, involving supply of technologies, catalysts, technical services and supporting the refiner through different phases of projects.

As part of the Numaligarh Refinery expansion project, Axens would license the following technologies: Naphtha hydrotreating unit, continuous catalytic reforming unit (octanizing), C5-C6 isomerization unit, and FCC gasoline selective desulfurization (Prime-G+) unit.

According to Corinne Garriga, head of communications, Axens Group, in a statement to Business A.M., the scope of Axens’ work includes the supply of basic engineering design package, catalysts & adsorbents, proprietary equipment, trainings and technical services.

Patrick Sarrazin, executive vice-president, Axens’ process licensing global business unit, said the expansion of the Numaligarh Refinery will help NRL to meet growing domestic demand for clean fuels reaching BS VI specifications.

“We are delighted to support NRL by supplying our extensive refining technology expertise, global capabilities in basic engineering design, catalysts, equipment and services,” Sarrazin said.

The Numaligarh Refinery, a joint venture between Bharat Petroleum, Oil India Limited and Government of Assam, with present crude processing capacity at 3 MMTPA, plays a strategic role towards catering to the fuels demand of North-Eastern

regions of India. In 2019, the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, Govt. of India approved the plan to increase the refinery capacity to 9 MMTPA.

Axens, a group providing a complete range of solutions for the conversion of oil and biomass to cleaner fuels, the production and purification of major petrochemical intermediates as well as all of natural gas’ treatment and conversion options, is the technical partner of upcoming Nigeria’s BUA refinery in Akwa Ibom State. The private sector refining complex has capacity to refine 200,000 barrels of crude oil per day.

Marquee investors, companies ready to snap up shares

India’s oil industry divestment has been generating global attention. Many marquee investors and companies including Saudi Aramco, Rosneft, Kuwait Petroleum, Total SA and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company are among those that have expressed interests in participating in BPCL’s divestment.z