NEW DELHI - Reliance Petroleum will start fuel exports from its new refinery this month, earlier than expected, an official said, swelling global fuel supplies at a time when demand is shrinking due to the economic slowdown.
Analysts and trade sources had expected Reliance to begin exports from the new 580,000 barrels per day (bpd) plant in April to take advantage of a five-year tax holiday.
"All processing units will be ready in next few days," P. Raghavendran, president (refinery business) at parent Reliance Industries, told reporters on the sidelines of the Petrotech conference.
"During the course of this month products are likely to be sold," he said.
Reliance Petroleum, in which U.S. oil giant Chevron owns five percent stake, last month began processing crude at the new facility, which sits adjacent to the parent's existing 660,000-bpd refinery at Jamnagar in western India.
After reaching full capacity, the $6 billion new refinery and the existing plant will make the Jamnagar complex the world's single-biggest supplier of fuels to the global market, pumping out 1.24 million bpd.
Among the new processing units which will come on stream soon are a gasoline-making fluid catalytic cracking unit (FCCU), a hydrotreater and alkylation units, Raghavendran said.
COMPETITION STIFFENS
As a start, traders said Reliance sold a 35,000-tonne cargo of naphtha from the new plant for lifting in end-January.
To prepare for its global trading presence, Reliance has leased clean oil products storage in Singapore, the Mediterranean and the Caribbean.
Low demand along with planned maintenance has hit output at Indian refineries, which fell 1.1 percent in November from a year ago, the first annual drop since October 2005 when production slowed by 2.5 percent..
Production at Reliance Industries' 660,000-bpd plant dropped 7.4 percent in November from the same month last year, hit by sluggish consumption and lower margins, official data showed.
"We keep doing the demand adjustment," Raghavendran said.
Competition from Reliance and the global demand slump has forced refiners such as Taiwan's Formosa Petrochemical Corp and South Korea's top refiner SK Energy to sell at lower prices or consider cutting runs.
Raghavendran said Reliance was looking at opportunities to participate in refining projects overseas but declined to comment on specific deals.
"We are looking at possibilities around the world. Right now, we now we are focused on getting our second refinery commissioned and completed. Then we start looking at opportunities around the world," he said.
Thu Jan 15, 2009 10:53pm IST
No comments:
Post a Comment