MOSCOW (MRC) -- India’s Reliance Industries, operator of the world’s biggest refining complex, has canceled lifting of vacuum gas oil (VGO) cargo from local refiner Nayara Energy due to the shutdown of its gasoline-making unit, reported Reuters with reference to three sources.
Reliance announced that it has shut a gasoline-producing fluid catalytic cracker (FCC) unit in its export-oriented 704 Mbpd refinery. The unit is expected to restart within two weeks, it said.sp
Reliance was to lift 40,000 tonnes of VGO, a feedstock for FCC, from Nayara’s refinery in Vadinar later this month, the sources said.
Reuters on Wednesday reported that Reliance has declared force majeure on gasoline exports from its Jamnager refinery in western India.
A U.S based trade source said Reliance has declared force majeure on 4 gasoline cargoes bound to the United States due to shutdown of the FCC.
Reliance’s two refineries at Jamnagar have the capability to process about 1.5 MMbpd oil.
Reliance and Nayara Energy did not respond to a Reuters email seeking comments.
Asia’s gasoline crack fell on Thursday but remained close to its highest level this year due to supply disruptions after Reliance Industries declared force majeure on gasoline supplies the previous day.
As MRC informed before, RIL shut down its cracker, polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) plants in Hazira on 23 March, 2017 for a 25-day turnaround. Located at Hazira near Surat in Gujarat, the cracker has a production capacity of 1.1 mmt/year and the downstream PP plant has a production capacity of 600,000 mt/year. The PE plant has a capacity of 450,000 mt/year.
Reliance Industries is one of the world's largest producers of polymers. Thus, the company produces among others polypropylene, polyethylene and polyvinyl chloride.
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