Coal news and updates

MRPL like to commission 1 mtpa pet coke facility this month

December 5: Mangalore Refineries and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL), a subsidiary of ONGC Ltd, is expected to commission this month its 1-million tons per annum (mtpa) pet coke facility at its plant in Mangalore, Karnataka, an industry source said.

“The company had said in June it expects to commission the pet coke facility in December 2013 but, so far, we have not heard anything on this,” the source added.

However, ICMW learnt that the company has floated a tender for transportation of pet coke, which will be opened today and this indicates that plans to commission the pet coke facility in December itself are on.

Meanwhile, an official from MRPL told ICMW from Bangalore that he would be able to comment on the latest position on December 7.

As of now, India has domestic pet coke manufacturing capacity of around 12 million tons per annum (mtpa) and with the upcoming MRPL’s facility, the volume will go up to 13 mtpa.

Another 2 mtpa of pet coke capacity is slated to go on stream from Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL) at Paradip by end of 2015 that will boost India’s domestic pet coke manufacturing capacity to 15 mtpa.

Of the existing 12 mtpa capacity, the maximum, at 6 mtpa is with Reliance Industries Ltd in Gujarat, 2 mtpa each is with Essar Energy at Jamnagar and IOCL at its Panipat and Koyali facilities.

Bharat Oman Refineries Ltd (BORL), a joint venture between Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd and Oman Oil Corporation Ltd, has a facility of 0.48 mtpa at Bina in Madhya Pradesh.

Guru Gobind Singh Refinery and Petrochemicals, a joint venture between Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) and Mittal Energy Ltd, has a facility for 0.9 mtpa at Bhatinda in Punjab.