Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) is seeking a diesel cargo as early as May as company’s domestic supply remains tight on the back of refinery maintenance. The refinery is seeking 40,000 tonnes of 350 ppm sulphur diesel for delivery into Kochi over May 8-10.
Refinery shutdowns at India's 60,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) Numaligarh refinery and Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals' 300,000 bpd plant has caused a double impact on BPCL's diesel supply, thereby prompting the need for imports.
Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals (MRPL) have gone for emergency shutdown due to stoppage of water supply from Nethravathi River and have declared force majeure at the refinery, with all shipments except some to Mauritius to be affected.
Meanwhile, the Numaligarh refinery, which is 61.65% owned by BPCL with the government of Assam and Oil India owning the rest, will close next week after a planned maintenance was brought forward due to a fire at one of its secondary units over the weekend. The shutdown of the refinery is expected to last about 20 days.
However, other state-owned refineries like Indian Oil Corp (IOC) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp (HPCL) do not have immediate plans to import diesel and are trying to manage from the domestic inventory.
