MOSCOW (MRC) -- India’s state-run Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd has made its first purchase of US crude oil, buying high-sulfur grade Southern Green Canyon through a buy tender for an early February delivery, the head of its refinery said, reported Reuters.
MRPL bought a 1 MMbbl cargo for a Feb. 1–10 delivery, M. Venkatesh told Reuters.
Other Indian refiners - Indian Oil Corp Ltd, Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd, Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd and Reliance Industries Ltd - have also bought US oil in recent months.
"Pricing is competitive to the similar grades from other regions," Venkatesh said. "As long as it (US crude) is economical we will try exploring it."
Venkatesh declined to give details on pricing or say who was the seller of the US oil.
He also declined to elaborate on the award of a separate MRPL buy tender for 1 MMbbl of sour grades for January loading.
Trade sources said MRPL bought Oman crude in the January tender. Both cargoes were sold by Royal Dutch Shell, one of the sources said.
A Shell official in Singapore said the company does not comment on commercial agreements or the movement of cargoes.
Venkatesh said a delayed coker unit at MRPL’s 300,000 bpd coastal refinery is operating at full capacity since end-November, making it possible for the plant to resume processing high sulfur crude grades.
The 3 MMtpy coker unit had been operating at half of its capacity for about 45 days due to a technical glitch.
As MRC wrote before, in June 2015, MRPL successfully commenced commercial production of PP from its polypropylene plant as part of its phase-III refinery expansion and upgradation project in Mangaluru. The plant has a capacity to produce 4,40,000 tonnes of PP per annum. Feedstock for the PP plant - polymer grade propylene - is being produced from upstream petrochemical fluidised catalytic cracking unit of the refinery. Technology provider for the PP plant is Novolen of Germany. The plant has been engineered and constructed by Engineers India Ltd.
Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL), is an oil refinery at Mangalore and is a subsidiary of ONGC, set up in 1993. The refinery is located at Katipalla, north from centre of Mangalore city. The refinery was established after displacing five villages of Bala, Kalavar, Kuthetoor, Katipalla, and Adyapadi.
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