GUWAHATI: Numaligarh Refinery Ltd will for the first time process imported crude oil with the Upper Assam facility receiving its first consignment of Miri crude oil from Petronas Malaysia, a fully integrated oil and gas company.
A railway rake comprising 50 tank wagons and carrying around 2,760 metric tonnes of crude oil on Sunday reached Numaligarh from Haldia port, West Bengal from where it was dispatched on July 31, 2019, an official statement issued here said.
Miri crude oil is low in sulphur and is close in specifications to Assam crude oil, also known as sweet crude for its low sulphur content, which the refinery is currently processing from the oil fields of Upper Assam.
This is for the first time that crude oil is being imported by Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) for processing in the refinery.
The development will help facilitate better capacity utilisation of NRL’s existing refining capacity (3 MMTPA), which has till now been constrained owing to non-availability of adequate domestic crude oil.
The refinery has also embarked on a mega expansion project to treble its capacity from 3 to 9 MMTPA and developing capabilities for sourcing of crude oil.
“This landmark development will assist us in enhancing refinery throughput and as our distillate yield is high, it will increase our margins,” NRL managing director, S.K Barua said on the development.
Crude oil availability in Northeast India has gradually declined over the years, falling short of the requirement of 7 MMTPA for all the four Northeast refineries put together. As a result, the Guwahati-Barauni pipeline which was earlier being used to transport crude oil from the region to other parts of the country is now being utilised for reverse flow of crude oil into the region.
Earlier the vessel named, ‘M/T Sand Shiner’ containing 19,600 metric tonnes of of Miri crude oil reached Haldia Port from Miri Port, Malaysia on June 26, 2019, after sailing for 10 days. The consignment was received by senior officials of NRL and Kolkata Port Trust.