The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG) approved a revised cost of Rs 28,026 crore for the ongoing Numaligarh Refinery expansion project to increase its capacity to 9 million metric tonnes per annum (mmtpa) from the proposed 3 mmtpa.
The original proposed capacity of the expected 6 mmtpa has been reconfigured and improved to make its petrochemical, focusing on upgrading the Refinery residue through the Ebullated Bed Residue Hydro-Theater with high severity Petro-fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) unit. In Numaligarh Refinery Ltd (NRL), the adoption of State of the Arts technology within this configuration and the addition of extremely complex schemes such as residue hydrocracking, the Refinery can process heavier crude oil and increase the production of distillates. It will increase the project cost to Rs 28,026 crore from Rs 22,594 crore. NRL has added the intervening period between its original Refinery plan for the expansion and the current market scenario. NRL has drawn upon the maturity of Residue Upgradation Technology and availability of Natural Gas to revise the configuration plan. The configuration aims to achieve the best energy efficiency on global energy benchmarking. With the increasing production of distillate, NRL will also ensure the production of LPG, therefore eliminating the LPG deficit in the North-Eastern part of India. Image Source
