Wednesday, Sep 03, 2003
Wednesday, Sep 03, 2003 |
| Southern States | ||||
|
News:
Front Page |
National |
Southern States |
International |
Opinion |
Business |
Sport |
Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary | Southern States
-
Tamil Nadu
By N. Ravi Kumar
Apart from transforming a 140-acre, predominantly barren expanse in the neighbourhood of the IOC group company's existing 6.5-million tonne refinery into an industrial activity zone, the project promises consumers high quality petroleum products, particularly automobile fuels conforming to emerging eco-friendly norms. "We will manufacture petrol and high-speed diesel meeting Bharat stage-II and Euro-III equivalent environmental specifications, much ahead of the norms coming into force from April 1, 2005", the CPCL Managing Director, S.V. Narasimhan, told The Hindu. Setting January as the outer limit for the project to go on stream, he said it would help to improve LPG production and "ward off the fear of a shortfall in supply". All major components of the Rs. 2,360-crore project, barring a hydrocracker unit, have been mechanically completed. "The process of flushing pipelines and other pre-commissioning activities are in progress", says R. Anand, general manager (Projects). At least five foreign firms including Lummus and Technip Benelux of the Netherlands, Chevron Lummus Global of the United States and the France-based Axens are participating either as a process designer or licensor in the project, in which about five lakh running metres of piping, 1.30 lakh metric cubes of reinforced cement concrete and 23,000 tonnes of steel have been used. At the peak of the work around 5,000 persons were employed daily. "Work on the hydrocracker unit has begun", according to Mr. Narasimhan and "in three months it would be commissioned. Meanwhile, we would go ahead and start putting on stream other components and stabilise them". But it would be only with the hydrocracker unit that the yield from the crude would improve for the CPCL, which also has a one million-tonne refinery at Panangudi, near Nagapattinam.
Product reach
One of the major advantages accruing to the company from the project would be its ability to extend the reach of the products, value-additions and quality improvement. "The CPCL has extensively discussed evacuation of the products with the IOC" and as a precursor of things to come, begun exporting aviation turbine fuel and high-speed diesel to Sri Lanka. Oil industry forecasts also present opportunities for export of petroleum products to Bangladesh, Pakistan, China and Far-East countries. Detailing the significance of capabilities and processes focussed on maximising the yield and refining different varieties of crude including those with a high sulphur content, Mr. Narasimhan says, "greater emphasis is on environmental control measures and the total expenditure on them is about Rs. 200 crores". Apart from developing a green belt in and around the project, the measures include the setting up of an effluent treatment plant and a sulphur recovery unit.
Printer friendly
page
News:
Front Page |
National |
Southern States |
International |
Opinion |
Business |
Sport |
Miscellaneous |
|
|
|
The Hindu Group: Home | About Us | Copyright | Archives | Contacts | Subscription Group Sites: The Hindu | Business Line | The Sportstar | Frontline | The Hindu eBooks | Home |
Copyright © 2003, The
Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of
this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of
The Hindu
|
