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MOSCOW (MRC) -- India's HPCL-Mittal
Energy Ltd (HMEL), will shut its 226,000 barrels per day (bpd) Bathinda refinery
in northern Punjab state for about 40 days from end-January for maintenance, two
sources said, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.
During
the shutdown HMEL will also carry out work to be able to hook petrochemical
units, including a 1.2 million tons a year ethylene cracker, sources with
knowledge of the plan said.
The 40-day shutdown is expected to start
around Jan. 25-26, said one of the sources, adding the company plans to
commission petrochemical units in September-October.
The sources declined
to be named as they are not authorized to speak to media. HMEL's chief executive
Prabh Das said 'no comments' when asked about the shutdown plan.
Indian
refiners have turned their focus to raising production of petrochemicals to
cater for rising demand and help hedge against lower refined fuel
margins.
State-refiner Hindustan Petroleum Corp and Mittal Energy
Investments Pvt Ltd own 49 percent stake each in the project.
As per MRC,
HPCL-Mittal Energy Limited (HMEL) plans to commission
a new polypropylene (PP) plant in Bhatinda, Punjab, India in 2021. The capacity
of the new enterprise will be 500,000 tonne/year of PP. The company already
operates an operating PP plant with a capacity of 440,000 tonnes per year
at this site, which was launched in 2012.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report,
Russia's polypropylene (PP) shipments to the Russian market reached 1
090,900 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2020 (calculated using the formula:
production, minus exports, plus imports, excluding producers' inventories as of
1 January, 2020). Supply of exclusively PP random copolymer increased. |
