Though the outbreak of COVID 19 has hit the demand for petrol, diesel, fuel oil, bitumen, aviation turbine fuel (ATF) and other petroleum products, the requirement for cooking gas and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), has gone up, according to BPCL, Kochi Refinery.
“BPCL Kochi Refinery is braving all the logistic challenges that have risen with the COVID 19 outbreak and employing all innovative means to ensure continuous supply of the fuels. We are giving utmost importance to ensure production and distribution of LPG which is critical at this point of time,” said Murali Madhavan, executive director (Kochi Refinery).
Ensuring continuous production in such a condition has posed high logistic challenges since capacity of storage of each product inside the refinery and installations become critical. Crude oil being a complex mixture of different products which are fractionated out during the refining process, there are limits for selective production of products, he said.
The crude oil processing has been reduced now to around 60 % in view of the lower product demand. To meet the rising demand for LPG, BPCL had taken steps to improve LPG production in its refineries by appropriately modifying operations.
Some of the surplus products which are not getting consumed within the country like diesel and naphtha are being exported. Project implementation work has been stopped for the time-being.
The refinery has put in place an unprecedented operational plan involving new work protocols to safeguard the health of its employees and contract workers that ensures continuous production of petroleum fuels matching the highly volatile market conditions following the COVID 19 pandemic.
