NRL receives first imported Miri crude oil consignment from Petronas; to help refinery better capacity utilisation

Guwahati: State-owned Numaligarh Refinery Ltd on Sunday said it has received the imported crude oil consignment from Malaysia, the first such instance in its history. The refinery in Golaghat district received the first consignment of imported Miri crude oil from Petronas, Malaysia through a railway rake comprising 50 wagons carrying around 2,760 metric tonne of crude from Haldia port in West Bengal.

“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 utilisation of its existing refining capacity of 3 MMTPA, which has till now been constrained due to non-availability of adequate domestic crude oil,” the company said in a statement.

The Miri crude 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. [caption id=“attachment_3478307” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Reuters[/caption] “This landmark development would assist us in enhancing refinery throughput and as our distillate yield is high, this will increase our margins,” NRL Managing Director S K Barua said in the statement. Crude oil availability in North East has gradually declined over the years and is not able to cater to the requirement of seven MMTPA for all the four refineries put together in the region. As a result, the Guwahati-Barauni pipeline, which was earlier used to transport crude from the region to other parts of the country, is now being utilised for reverse flow of crude oil into the region. The NRL is expanding its capacity from existing 3 MMTPA to 9 MMTPA at an investment of Rs 22,594 crore, which also include a 1,398 km crude oil pipeline of 9 MMTPA from Paradip to Numaligarh and a 654 km product pipeline of 6 MMTPA from Numaligarh to Siliguri.