Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. (IOC), the country’s second-largest producer of petroleum coke, commissioned a delayed coker unit (DCU) at its Haldia refinery in March 2020. With this new DCU, Haldia refinery can also process its heavy reside to obtain high value light and middle distillates and pet coke would be produced as a byproduct.
The full production capacity would be approximately 35,000 – 40,000 MT per month, i.e. 0.4 MnT per annum. However, it will take time to ramp up the production to full scale and in the current fiscal year it may produce 50% to 60% of the capacity.
The supply has commenced recently by road and few trucks were dispatched to the customers. It may take some time to commence supplies by rake.
Thus, the total production capacity for IOC can now be considered as 3.6 MnT, which was so far aroundd 3.2 MnT in a year. These refineries are located at Panipat, Koyali, Paradip, Haldia, Barauni, Bongaigaon, Guwahti and Digboi. Major refineries located at Panipat, Koyali, Paradip and Haldia produce mostly fuel-grade pet coke excepting Koyali where both high sulphur and small quantity of low sulphur pet coke is also produced. Other refineries located in Bihar and Assam produce anode-grade (low suphur) pet coke, which is considered to be of high quality and sold through auction.
Haldia refinery is expected to cater demand in the states of West Bengal and neighboring states like Jharkhand, Bihar, Assam and Chhattisgarh. It may also cater to requirements of Nepal and Bhutan.
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