The largest public-sector refinery in India, Gujarat is the biggest and most energy-efficient refinery for Indian Oil Corporation Limited. The facility began operations in 1965.

The 13.7-million ton per year (MMTPA) refinery features five atmospheric crude distillation units, a crude reformer unit, a fluid catalytic cracking unit, and a hydro cracking unit (the first one in India). It primarily serves the demand for petroleum products in western and northern India.

When commissioned in 1965, the refinery was designed to process crude from the Ankleshwar, Kalol, and Nawagam oilfields of ONGC in Gujarat. Its initial design capacity of 3 MMPTA was increased to 4.3 MMPTA by the revamping of three distillation units. In 1978, it was further increased to 7.3 MMPTA by the addition of a crude distillation unit. A fluidized catalytic cracking unit was added to the refinery in 1981 to increase production of middle distillates, such as diesel and LPG. The capacity of the refinery was further increased to 9.5 MMTPA by 1990.

Expansion project

Indian Oil has embarked on another expansion at Gujarat that will enable the company to process heavier crudes and meet stricter international emission norms at the facility.

The first stage of expansion involves de-bottlenecking and the addition of more bottom-upgrading units, such as a delayed coker. The second phase includes a set of distillation units, including the addition of all secondary units and a coker. The expansion will allow the refinery to handle a wide range of crudes from light to heavy and take advantage of the market differential between heavy and light crudes.

Indian Oil has awarded Punj Lloyd a Rs. 590 crore contract to build a 3.7 MMTPA delayed coking unit and a 150 TMTPA LPG merox unit. Larsen & Toubro (L&T) is the recipient of a Rs. 693 crore order for two trains of 300-tonne-per-day sulfur recovery units (EPCC - 5) along with sour facilities. These facilities include an amine regeneration unit sour water stripper and a tail gas treatment unit for enhanced sulfur recovery Up to 99.9%. L&T's engineering, procurement, and construction order comprises the following: residual process design, detailed engineering, procurement, supply, transportation, storage, fabrication, inspection, construction, installation, testing, mechanical completion, pre-commissioning, commissioning and performance guarantee test runs.

Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. is providing project management and engineering, procurement and construction management services for a 2.2-MMTPA diesel hydro treatment (DHDT) project at the facility. The approximately $200-million DHDT project will allow the refinery to produce diesel to the latest European Union norms.

Foster Wheeler USA Corp. is providing a license and basic engineering package for a 3.7-MMTPA delayed coker, which is based on its Selective Yield Delayed Coking (SYDEC) process.

This latest expansion at Gujarat Refinery will allow Indian Oil to produce petroleum products of very high quality, meeting the most stringent environmental norms. The company expects to complete the upgrade, which will add 4.3 MMTPA capacity, in January 2010.