Kochi faces delay in producing high-quality products

Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd.’s (BPCL) Kochi oil refinery in southern India is operating at increased capacity of 190,000 barrels per day (bpd), but output of higher grade petrol and diesel fuel will be delayed because of basic engineering problems, a senior company official said. BPCL has raised the capacity of one of the crude units in Kochi to 100,000 bpd from 60,000 bpd. Kochi refinery Executive Director E. Nandakumar told Reuters that his firm hopes to complete key units, a continuous catalytic cracker (CCR) and vacuum gas oil (VGO) hydrotreater, to produce Euro IV compliant auto fuel by February 2010. India plans to introduce Euro IV compliant fuel in some states from April next year, while the rest of the country will switch over to Euro III compliant fuel. (August 14, 2009)