Gujarat Refinery - History

History

Following the conclusion of the Indo-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation in February 1961, a site for the establishment of a 2 million metric ton per annum (mmtpa) oil refinery was selected on 17 April 1961. Soviet and Indian engineers signed a contract in October 1961 for the preparation of the project. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru laid the foundation stone of the refinery on 10 May 1963.

The refinery was commissioned with Soviet assistance at a cost of Rs.26 crores began production in October 1965. The first crude distillation unit with a capacity of 1 mmtpa was commissioned for trial production on 11 October 1965 and achieved its rated capacity on 6 December 1965. Throughput reached 20% beyond its designed capacity in January 1966.

President Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan dedicated the refinery to the nation with the commissioning of second crude distillation unit and catalytic reforming unit on 18 October 1966.

The third 1 mmtpa distillation unit was commissioned in September 1967 to process Ankleshwar and North Gujarat crudes. In December 1968, Udex plant was commissioned for production of benzene and toluene using feedstock from CRU. By 1974-75 with in-house modifications, the capacity of the refinery increased by 40% to a level of 4.2 mmtpa. To process imported crude the refinery was expanded during 1978-79 by adding another 3 mmtpa crude distillation unit along with downstream processing units including vacuum distillation, visbreaker and bitumen blowing units. By 1980-81 this unit started processing Bombay High crude in addition to imported crudes. It was the first time that Indian engineers independently handled a project of that scale.

To recover products from the residue, secondary processing facilities consisting of fluidized catalytic cracking unit of 1 mmtpa capacity along with a feed preparation unit of 1 mmtpa capacities, were commissioned in December 1982. The refinery set up pilot distillation facilities for the production of n-Heptane and light aluminum rolling oils. To enable absorption of increased indigenous crudes the refinery's capacity was further increased to 9.5 mmtpa.

In 1993-1994, Gujarat commissioned the country's first hydrocracker unit of 1.2 mmtpa for conversion of heavier ends of crude oil to high value superior products.

India's first diesel hydrodesulfurisation unit to reduce sulfur content in diesel was commissioned in June 1999. An methyl tertiary butyl ether unit was commissioned in September 1999 to eliminate lead from motor fuels. The facility conceptualised and commissioned South Asia's largest centralised effluent treatment plant by dismantling the four old ETP's in June 1999. By September 1999 with the commissioning of an atmospheric distillation unit, Gujarat Refinery further augmented its capacity to 13.7 mmtpa making it the largest public sector undertaking refinery of the country.

A project for production of linear alkyl benzene from kerosene streams was implemented in August 2004. It is the largest grassroots single train Kerosene-to-LAB unit in the world, with an installed capacity of 1.2 mmtpa. To meet future fuel quality requirements, MS quality improvement facilities were commissioned in 2006.