Kochi Refinery, a unit of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), embarked on its journey in 1966

with a capacity of 50,000 barrels per day. Formerly known as Cochin Refineries Limited and later
renamed as Kochi Refineries Limited, the refinery was originally established as a joint venture in
collaboration with Phillips Petroleum Corporation, USA. Today it is a frontline entity as a unit of the
Fortune 500 company, BPCL.
Kochi Refinery, located at Ambalmugal near the city of Kochi in Kerala, is one of the two Refineries of
BPCL, presently having a crude oil refining capacity of 9.5 Million Metric Tonnes per Annum (MMTPA).
The product portfolio of the 190,000 barrels per day refinery today includes petrochemical feed stocks
and specialty products in addition to its range of quality fuels.
Fuel products of this fuel based refinery includes Liquefied Petroleum Gas, Naphtha, Motor Spirit,
Kerosene, Aviation Turbine Fuel, High Speed Diesel, Fuel Oils and Asphalt. Specialty products for the
domestic markets include Benzene, Toluene, Propylene, Special Boiling Point Spirit, Poly Iso Butene and
Sulphur.
The refinery has implemented world class technology and systems for operations and enterprise
resource planning. It is an ISO 14001 Environmental Management Systems (EMS) and ISO 9001:2000
Quality Management System (QMS) accredited company and has also obtained the ISO 17025 (Testing
Methods in Quality Control) certification from NABL (National Accreditation Board for testing &
Calibration of Laboratories). The refinery has successfully implemented the Occupational Health and
Safety Management System (OHSAS) 18001:2007 in the year 2009.
With the prestigious Crude Oil receipt facilities consisting of the
Single Point Mooring (SPM) and the associated shore tank farm in
place since December 2007, the refinery is equipped to receive
crude oil in Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs). This facility helps
Kochi refinery in reducing the freight charges to a great extent,
over and above increasing flexibility in crude oil selection. This,
thereby, is a major infrastructure facility to accelerate the future
growth of Kochi Refinery.
The refinery has facilities to evacuate products to the consuming centres through road, rail, ships and
through pipelines. All the major industries in the area are connected to the refinery for product receipt.
The BPCL installation at Irumpanam, to which the refinery is connected by pipelines, is the major
product distribution centre of the refinery. Petronet CCK, a joint venture company of BPCL looks after
the 300 km long pipeline that connects the refinery to various consumption points in Tamil Nadu such as
Coimbatore and Karur.
Of the two-part Capacity Expansion cum Modernisation Project (PhaseII), the capacity expansion to 9.5
MMTPA has been successfully completed and refinery modernisation slated for completion in August
2010 would equip the refinery to produce auto-fuels conforming to Euro-III and partly Euro-IV
specifications.
The refinerys foray into direct marketing began since 1993 through marketing of its aromatic products -
Benzene and Toluene. The entry into the international petroleum business stream began with its first
parcel of Fuel Oil exported in January 2001. Since then the refinery, has earned the reputation as a
reliable player in the international trade, by virtue of superior product quality and customer service.
Moreover, the Fuel Oil has been benchmarked in the Singapore and Dubai Fuel Oil markets.
Kochi Refinery is situated in Kochi, the most happening city in Kerala that is rightly called Gods own
country. The refinery has a unique bond with its environment which is evident in the green blanket so
carefully nourished right around it. The refinery has been blessed with a fine topography and the entire
complex, spreading across over thousand two hundred acres has been so constructed as to blend
naturally with it. Upcoming expansions and developments would also adhere to this philosophy of
blending with nature. The most recent addition to the refinery architecture is the rainwater harvesting
pond and eco-park that has been converted to a must-see spot with sprawling landscaped lawns and
thatched canopies for conferences and get-togethers. Year after year the refinery has been bagging
accolades for its commitment to the environment; for the all round care for the environment, the
judicious storage, use and reuse of water, the efficiency in managing solid wastes and effluents and the
care taken to keep the atmosphere clean.
The recent achievement of 24 million accident free man-hours stands testimony to the fact that the
prime focus of Kochi Refinery is on safety in everything we do. From training to retraining, and adhering
to international standards in safety practices, both, offsite and onsite, Kochi Refinery has taken it as a
mission to make safe living and working a natural mantra of its employees, contract workers, customers
and the general public. Several awareness programmes have been successfully conducted to this effect
with the results for all to see.
As a socially responsible corporate citizen, the community welfare initiatives of the refinery concentrate
on developing the weaker sections of society, particularly, the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes
and people below the poverty line in important sectors like health, education, housing and women
empowerment. Most of the programmes falling under the categories of medical and educational
assistance turned out to be poverty alleviation measures also. This is since the programmes like
universal health insurance, scholarship to SC/ST students and medical camps for poor have helped the
poor villagers in the refinery vicinity to save money over their medical expenses and educational
expenses of children. Various people intensive small-scheme community development programmes
have brought new life for many; be it poor villagers in need of medical treatment; poor students in
government schools or differently abled children!
Thus, apart from maintaining its world class standards in operational excellence, the singular objective
of Kochi Refinery is to uphold the BPCL vision of energizing lives by continued excellence in all round
performance with new ideas, added vigour and sustained commitment to its social, cultural,
organizational and natural environment.


Future Plans : Integrated Refinery Expansion Project
In view of the tremendous demand growth for petroleum products especially for the auto fuels in the
country, Kochi Refinery is contemplating an integrated expansion of its refining capacity. A review of
the demand potential for various petroleum products in the region indicates the need for further
capacity addition in order to meet the demands beyond the year 2015. Sensing the sharp rise in demand
for petroleum products other refineries in India are expanding or planning to expand the capacity. Kochi
Refinery is envisaging a 6 MMTPA capacity addition with the effective utilization of available
infrastructure like the SPM and Shore Tank Farm. Kochi Refinery would then be able to cater with ease
to the Southern part of India.
The declining market for heavy fuel oils high in sulphur content and reduced availability coupled with
increased prices of light/ low sulphur crudes, has made it imperative for refineries to set up suitable
residue upgradation facility to maintain profitability. Recent capacity addition of the refinery has
resulted in generation of additional quantities of residual fuels. The proposed Integrated Refinery
Expansion project will be looking into the viability of suitable bottoms upgradation facilities which will
minimize residual fuel generation and maximize distillates
Euro-IV quality auto fuels are already mandated in major cities in India and many of refineries have set
up/ are setting up facilities for meeting Euro-IV quality fuels. Kochi Refinery is all set to produce Euro-III
and partly Euro-IV quality fuels on completion of the ongoing refinery modernization. Facilities for
production of auto fuels conforming fully to Euro-IV or higher norms are also being envisaged as part of
the proposed capacity expansion project of the refinery. This will be required to meet the future quality
standards in India and will enable the refinery to market its products anywhere in India including the
major cities and also to export the products.
Thus the proposed Integrated Refinery Expansion Project , will integrate Capacity addition with Bottoms
Upgradation and Auto Fuel quality improvement.
Additional Tankage at SPM.
Each tank at the Shore Tank Farm of the SPM facility in Puthuvypeen, Kochi is of 80,000 Kilolitre
capacity. Four tanks are presently in place and there is space available for two more. Additional tanks
are being proposed at the STF to cater to the needs of the proposed Integrated Refinery Expansion
Project . This will also provide flexibility in operation especially while taking out tanks for periodical
statutory inspections.
Petrochemicals
Kochi Refinery is presently producing petrochemical feed stocks such as Benzene, Toluene and
Propylene in addition to the various petroleum products and specialty products. Increased quantities of
Naphtha will be produced in the refinery after the proposed capacity expansion. Declining demand for
Naphtha as product due to replacement by consumers with increasingly available Natural Gas/ LNG has
made to think of alternative options for utilizing Naphtha. Integration of the refinery with a
petrochemicals complex utilizing Naphtha and other feedstocks from the refinery is being looked into.
Power Generation
Power generation from byproducts from residue upgradation facility such as Coke or Pitch is another
option being evaluated for value addition. The project will enable to generate power at lower costs than
the current cost of fuel oil/ gas turbine based power generation. Excess power after meeting the
internal demand would be exported.
Performance

Throughput (000 MT) 2009-10 2008-09
2007-
08
2006-07 2005-06 2004-05 2003-04 2002-03
Crude oil Processed
Imported 5671 5241 5747 5614 4985 5803 5614 4576
Indigenous 2203 2443 2453 2138 1954 2121 2239 3004
Total 7874 7684 8200 7752 6939 7924 7853 7580


Production (000 MT)
Light Ends
LPG 420 396 442 397 337 423 423 364
Motor Spirit 819 802 875 770 574 732 745 741
Naptha 907 775 765 712 799 769 780 704
Benzene 34 38 39 41 37 44 41 49
Toluene 16 16 15 26 33 42 38 37
Propylene 8

SBPS 7 7 7 7 7 6 5 5
PIB 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 4
Hydrogen

0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Sub Total 2212 2036 2146 1956 1791 2020 2037 1904


Middle Distillates
ATF 351 343 283 218 156 139 115 118
JP5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
SKO 383 292 526 646 531 576 773 769
HSD 3356 3274 3426 2912 2673 3062 2939 2964
LDO 0 2 11 23 18 77 18 974
MTO 17 16 16 36 53 53 44 29
Sub Total 4106 3926 4262 3835 3432 3907 3893 3886

eavy Ends
Furnace Oil 613 682 841 1036 931 1109 1046 810
LSHS 244 328 251 227 143 166 269 292
Bitumen 195 199 161 163 140 169 156 162
Sulphur 19 22 24 21 20 17 17 10
Sub Total 1070 1231 1278 1448 1234 1461 1488 1274
Grand Total 7389 7192 7687 7238 6456 7387 7419 7064