Kochi Refinery Limited (KRL) is a crude oil

refinery A refinery is a production facility composed of a group of chemical engineering unit processes and unit operations refining certain materials or converting raw material into products of value. Types of refineries Different types of refineries ...

in the city of

Kochi Kochi (), also known as Cochin ( ) ( the official name until 1996) is a major port city on the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea, which is a part of the Arabian Sea. It is part of the district of Ernakulam in the state of K ...

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. It is the largest

public sector The public sector, also called the state sector, is the part of the economy composed of both public services and public enterprises. Public sectors include the public goods and governmental services such as the military, law enforcement, infra ...

refinery in India with a production capacity of 15.5 million

tonne The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton ( United State ...

s per year. Formerly known as Cochin Refineries Limited and later renamed as Kochi Refineries Limited, it was acquired by

Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) is an Indian central public sector undertaking under the ownership of Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Government of India. It operates three refineries in Bina, Kochi and Mumbai. BPCL is I ...

in the year 2006. The refinery is situated at Ambalamugal, around 12 km (7.5 mi) east of the city centre.

History

Kochi Refinery started when

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...

Phillips Petroleum Company Phillips Petroleum Company was an American oil company incorporated in 1917 that expanded into petroleum refining, marketing and transportation, natural gas gathering and the chemicals sectors. It was Phillips Petroleum that first found oil in the ...

of USA and Duncan Brothers & Company Limited of

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

signed an agreement for the construction of a

petroleum refinery An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial process plant where petroleum (crude oil) is transformed and refined into useful products such as gasoline (petrol), diesel fuel, asphalt base, fuel oils, heating oil, kerosene, liquefie ...

south India South India, also known as Dakshina Bharata or Peninsular India, consists of the peninsular southern part of India. It encompasses the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, as well as the union territo ...

, in

. The company was formally registered, as ''Cochin Refineries Ltd'' (CRL), on 6 September 1963 at

Ernakulam Ernakulam () is the Central Business District of the city of Kochi in Kerala, India and has lent its name to the Ernakulam district. Many major establishments, including the Kerala High Court, the office of the Kochi Municipal Corporation a ...

. Phillips Petroleum International Corporation was the prime contractors for the construction of the refinery. Construction work started in March 1964 and the first unit came on stream just after 29 months in September 1966. The

Prime Minister of India The prime minister of India (IAST: ) is the head of government of the Republic of India. Executive authority is vested in the prime minister and their chosen Council of Ministers, despite the president of India being the nominal head of the ...

Ms.

Indira Gandhi Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (; Given name, ''née'' Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician and a central figure of the Indian National Congress. She was elected as third prime minister of India in 1966 ...

inaugurated it on 23 September 1966. In 2006, Kochi Refinery was acquired by the

Awards

* Certificate of Excellence for outstanding achievement in pollution control by Kerala State Pollution Control Board * 'Green Manufacturing Excellence Award 2014' by M/s Frost & Sullivan for the year 2014 * Safety Award 2013 for the meritorious performance in the field of Safety, in Category-A among very large industries, from Factories & Boilers Department- Govt. of Kerala.

Capacity

The refinery had an original design capacity of 2.5 million

s per year which was increased to 3.3 million tonnes per year in 1973. Production of

liquefied petroleum gas Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG or LP gas) is a fuel gas which contains a flammable mixture of hydrocarbon gases, specifically propane, propylene, butylene, isobutane and n-butane. LPG is used as a fuel gas in heating appliances, cooking e ...

(LPG) and

aviation turbine fuel Jet fuel or aviation turbine fuel (ATF, also abbreviated avtur) is a type of aviation fuel designed for use in aircraft powered by gas-turbine engines. It is colorless to straw-colored in appearance. The most commonly used fuels for commercial a ...

(ATF) commenced after this expansion. Refining capacity was further enhanced to 4.5 million tonnes per year in November 1984 when a fluidized catalytic cracking unit (FCCU) of 1 million tonnes per year capacity was added. In Dec 1994, refining capacity was increased to 7.5 million tonnes per year along with revamp of FCCU to 1.4 million tonnes per year. A fuel gas de-sulphurisation unit was installed as part of this project to minimise sulphur dioxide emission. CRL entered into petrochemical sector in 1989 when aromatic production facilities with a design capacity of 87,200 tonnes per year of benzene and 12,000 tons per annum of toluene was commissioned. In the year 2000, a 2 million tonnes per year Diesel Hydro De-sulphurisation (DHDS) plant was added to reduce the sulphur content in

diesel Diesel may refer to: * Diesel engine, an internal combustion engine where ignition is caused by compression * Diesel fuel, a liquid fuel used in diesel engines * Diesel locomotive, a railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engin ...

. In August 2010, the refining capacity was further increased to 9.5 million tonnes per year. A captive power plant of 26.3 MW was commissioned in 1991. An additional captive power plant of 17.8 MW was commissioned in 1998 thus making the refinery self-sufficient in power. An LPG bottling plant of capacity 44,000 tonnes per year was commissioned in 2003. A

Bitumen Asphalt, also known as bitumen (, ), is a sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product, and is classed as a pitch. Before the 20th century, the term a ...

Emulsion plant of 10000 tonnes per year capacity has also been commissioned in 2004. A Biturox Bitumen Oxidation Unit of 378,000 tonnes per year capacity was successfully commissioned and started-up in 2008.

Merger with BPCL

(BPCL) acquired the Government of India's shares in KRL in March 2001. Consequent to the merger Order dated 18 August 2006 issued by Ministry of Company Affairs, the refinery has been amalgamated with Bharat Petroleum Corporation, henceforth to be known as BPCL-Kochi Refinery.

Competency

Today Kochi Refinery is a frontline entity as the unit of the

Fortune 500 The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by ''Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States corporations by total revenue for their respective fiscal years. The list includes publicly held companies, along ...

company, BPCL. With a turnover of around US$2500 million, the refinery aims to strengthen its presence in refining and marketing of petroleum products and further grow into the energy and petrochemical sectors. Kochi Refinery is engaged in

Refining {{Unreferenced, date=December 2009 Refining (also perhaps called by the mathematical term affining) is the process of purification of a (1) substance or a (2) form. The term is usually used of a natural resource that is almost in a usable form, b ...

and marketing of petroleum products. Beginning with a capacity of (bpd), today the Refinery has a refining capacity of . The Company entered the petrochemical sector with

benzene Benzene is an organic chemical compound with the molecular formula C6H6. The benzene molecule is composed of six carbon atoms joined in a planar ring with one hydrogen atom attached to each. Because it contains only carbon and hydrogen atoms, ...

and

toluene Toluene (), also known as toluol (), is a substituted aromatic hydrocarbon. It is a colorless, water-insoluble liquid with the smell associated with paint thinners. It is a mono-substituted benzene derivative, consisting of a methyl group (CH3) at ...

in 1989. Kochi Refinery produces all fuel based refinery products viz

naphtha Naphtha ( or ) is a flammable liquid hydrocarbon mixture. Mixtures labelled ''naphtha'' have been produced from natural gas condensates, petroleum distillates, and the distillation of coal tar and peat. In different industries and regions ''n ...

petrol Gasoline (; ) or petrol (; ) (see ) is a transparent, petroleum-derived flammable liquid that is used primarily as a fuel in most spark-ignited internal combustion engines (also known as petrol engines). It consists mostly of organic co ...

kerosene Kerosene, paraffin, or lamp oil is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived from petroleum. It is widely used as a fuel in aviation as well as households. Its name derives from el, κηρός (''keros'') meaning "wax", and was regi ...

, aviation turbine fuel, gas oil, fuel oil, and

bitumen Asphalt, also known as bitumen (, ), is a sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product, and is classed as a pitch. Before the 20th century, the term a ...

. The foray into direct marketing began since 1993 through marketing its aromatic products: benzene and toluene. The company entered the International Petroleum business stream when its first parcel of Fuel Oil was exported in January 2001. Since then the company has exported around 100 parcels. In the last financial year the refinery exported products worth over US$280 million.

Speciality Products

Kochi Refinery makes Speciality products for domestic markets Viz. Benzene, Toluene, White Spirit, Poly Iso Butene & Sulphur. Kochi Refinery offers supplies of any grade Fuel Oil (both 180 cst and 380 cst) and Low Aromatic Naphthene (High Paraffinic) to the international market. Kochi Refinery also produces speciality grade bitumen products like Natural Rubber Modified Bitumen, Bitumen Emulsion etc. The Fuel Oil has been bench marked in the Singapore and Dubai Fuel Oil markets. Currently Kochi Refinery is known as BPCL Kochi Refinery (BPCL KR). KR had undergone a capacity expansion which made it a 15.5 million tonnes per year refinery. This project called Integrated Refinery Expansion Project will also mark KR's foray into petrochemical business. It is a 20,000 crores rupees project.

SPM

An offshore

crude oil Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crude ...

receipt facility consisting of an offshore single point mooring (SPM) facility and an associated shore tank farm (situated in

Vypin Vypin (Malayalam: വൈപ്പിന്‍, Cochin Portuguese: Isla Santa) is one of the group of islands that form part of the city of Kochi (Cochin), in the Indian state of Kerala. Vypin forms a barrier island which lies between the Ar ...

).BharatPetroleum.com Kochi Refinery Projects.
/ref> This was commissioned in December 2007. The refinery is equipped to receive crude oil in Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs).

References

External links

Homepage of Bharat Petroleum Corporation / Kochi Refinery Overview
{{Kochi (India) topics Oil refineries in India Companies based in Kochi Energy in Kerala Non-renewable resource companies established in 1963 1963 establishments in Kerala Bharat Petroleum buildings and structures