Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) is fully geared to convert the refinery from BS4 to BS6 by September 2019, according to DK Sarraf, Chairman, MRPL. (BS is Bharat Stage emission standard.)

Addressing presspersons after the annual general meeting of shareholders here recently, he said the conversion from BS4 to BS6 is estimated to cost ₹1,810 crore.

It has already been approved by the board of MRPL. Now, it required to be approved by the board of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), and the process is under way, he said.

Other than certain things that the refinery will take up during the shutdown in September-October, the refinery is fully capable of meeting the BS6 requirements for diesel production. He said that the refinery will be fully compliant for diesel by March 2017. But as far as petrol is concerned, it will take time to implement the project.

H Kumar, Managing Director, MRPL, said that the government’s mandate is to switch over from BS4 to BS6 by April 1, 2020.

Stating that the refinery is fully compliant of BS4, he said it is almost BS6 compliant for diesel. However, for petrol significant work has to be done. The company targets to complete by July-September 2019. The mandate is that by September 2019 the construction and commissioning of the unit should take place.

Capacity expansion

M Venkatesh, Director (Refinery), MRPL, said that some delivery infrastructure needs to be upgraded. Refinery as such will be capable in the next couple of months, he said.

Sarraf added that the company has plans to expand the capacity of the refinery. The existing refinery capacity is 15 mtpa (million tonnes per annum).

“We want to further expand it. We are deliberating it among ourselves. Whether further expansion should be 18 mtpa, 21mtpa or even beyond. So we are looking at different pros and cons, different financial implications, different returns, different time-frames for that,” he said.

The company is deliberating on how much the expansion should be. Stating that the company has already identified the land for the expansion, he said it has already paid money to the authorities concerned in Karnataka for the land.

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