BPCL defers turnaround of units at refineries on shortage of labor
India Bharat Petroleum Corp has deferred the shutdown of secondary units at its Kochi and Mumbai refineries due to shortage of manpower and material to carry out the turnaround job, its head of refineries R. Ramachandran said.
“At this point of time we are not having the wherewithal to take any shut down because simply men power is not there material will not be available so we will be reviewing the shutdown plans as the situation evolves.. there will be no turnaround in the month of April,” Ramachandran told Reuters.
India imposed a sweeping lockdown of its 1.3 billion people on Wednesday for 21 days, and is only allowing the supply of essential commodities. The move prompted several industries to shut operations and some ports in the country to declare force majeure.
He said BPCL had plans to shut the continuous catalytic cracker and some other units at its 240,000 barrels per day (bpd) Mumbai refinery in western India and vacuum gasoil de-sulphuriser and some other units at 310,000 bpd Kochi refinery for two to three weeks in April.
Falling fuel demand has already prompted Indian refiners to reduce crude processing.
Comments