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India's largest oil company looks to the future

14/01/2008

India’s state-owned oil company, the Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IndianOil), has enlisted Shell Global Solutions and Shell’s catalyst business, Criterion Catalysts & Technologies (Criterion), to assist in developing one of the country’s most modern refinery and petrochemical complexes.

A licence for a diesel hydrotreating unit (DHDTU), engineering services and catalyst supply will be provided for IndianOil’s new refinery, which is to be built in the east-coast state of Orissa. The refinery at Paradip will have a capacity of 15 million tonnes a year using nil-residue production processes.

The refinery will have a DHDTU with a design capacity of 5 million tonnes. The unit will make 10-ppm sulphur-diesel fuel, and the project team hopes that it will be online by 2010. The joint Shell Global Solutions–Criterion team will draw up a process plan for the refinery unit; provide a licence, and design and engineering support for the DHDTU; help in building and maintaining the unit; and supply the catalysts.

IndianOil feels that Shell Global Solutions’ strong process technology and Criterion’s advanced catalyst technology for the diesel hydrotreating process will reinforce its efforts to be a major supplier of quality distillate products in the South-East Asian markets. The company operates 10 of India’s 18 refineries.