The Numaligarh Refinery Ltd (NRL) of Assam received its first consignment of imported Miri Crude Oil from PETRONAS, Malaysia on August 4.
A railway rake comprising of 50 Tank Wagons and carrying around 2,760 Metric Tonnes of Crude Oil reached Numaligarh from Haldia port, West Bengal, from where it was dispatched on July 31.
Miri Crude Oil is low in sulphur and is close in specifications to Assam Crude Oil, also known as Sweet Crude for its low sulphur content, which the refinery is currently processing from the Oil fields of Upper Assam.
This is for the first time that crude oil is being imported by NRL to be processed in the refinery.
This would help NRL attain better capacity utilization of its existing refining capacity of 3 MMTPA; which has till now been constrained due to non-availability of adequate domestic crude oil.
The Refinery has also embarked on a mega expansion project to treble its capacity from 3 to 9 MMTPA and developing capabilities for sourcing of crude oil augurs well for its future. “This landmark development would assist us in enhancing refinery throughput and as our distillate yield is high, this will increase our margins,” MD NRL, SK Barua said.
Crude oil availability in Northeast region has gradually declined over the years and is not able to cater to the requirement of 7 MMTPA for all the 4 Northeast refineries put together. As a result, the Guwahati – Barauni Pipeline which was earlier being used to transport crude oil from the region to other parts of the country is now being utilised for reverse flow of crude oil into the region.
Earlier on June 26, Vessel named, ‘M/T SAND SHINER’ containing 19,600 Metric Tonnes of Miri Crude Oil reached Haldia Port from Miri Port, Malaysia, after sailing for 10 days.
