VISAKH REFINERY

INTRODUCTION:

Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited, Visakh refinery covers an area of 575

acres area taken for 99 years lease from Visakhapatnam port trust. It is connected with
both Madras and Howrah railway track and national highway. It had an initial
installed capacity of 675 MTPA in 1957. The crude processing capacity was raised to
1.5 MTPA throughput level over a period of years by various modifications. The
crude processing capacity was further expanded to 4.5 MPTA level during 1985 by
adding new crude/ vacuum/ FCC unit and related utilities/ offsite facilities utilizing
available space in an integrated manner.

HPCL refineries has achieved the highest ever combined crude throughput of 12.93
MMT as against the previous best of 12.33 MMT achieved during 2001-2002. Visakh
refinery achieved the highest ever throughput of 6.85 million tones, as against of 6.70
MMT achieved during 2001-02, but for the first time in the history of HPCL in 2003-
04, it has achieved its target of 7.5 million tones. The fuel and loss at Visakh refinery
was 5.95% which is better than the MOU (memorandum of understanding) with
Government of India at target of 6.5%.

The refinery has achieved level 6 of International Safety Rating System (ISRS) and
has initiated action for achieving level 8. Several innovative environmental protection
steps were taken during the year. The efforts were recognized in the form of an Award
for “Best innovative measures in Environment” from Honourable Mayor of
Visakhapatnam. It has also bagged second prize for best improvement in energy
conservation for the year 2001-02. Visakh refinery commenced on MS/ HSD
productions of Bharat-grade cater to demand of Hyderabad/ Secunderabad region.

 Processing of Oily sludge is being done to recover oil.

 Bio-remediation farm construction for the treatment of Oily sludge has been
started.
Objectives:
- Innovation - Vision
- Ethics - Commitment
- Responsiveness - Team work

1. To be a leading world class company in hydro carbons and energy related

sectors with a global presence.
2. To serve the nations vital interest in the oil and related sectors.
3. To maintain continuing of supplies through their refinery and marketing
network at optimum cost and to provide up to date technical assistance to the
customer to conserve and put to the most efficient use of the valuable energy
resources.
4. To earn a reasonable return of investment.
5. To work towards achievement of self reliable in the field of oil refining
formulations and distributions systems.
6. To crude strong reach and development base in the field of oil refining and
stimulate R&D in developing new petroleum products so as to minimise their
imports.
7. To maximise utilisation of existing facilities in order to improve efficiency and
increase productivity.
8. The corporation will constantly endeavour to deserve and enjoy the highest
measure of public trust, esteem and respect.
9. To keep in pace with the developments of International Petroleum Refining
Technology.

HPCL-PRODUCTS:

Visakh refinery manufactures about 14 types of products. The products manufactured

and its uses are as follows:
1. Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG): It is used for cooking purposes and in
heaters, burners in industries.
2. Gasoline/ Petrol: It is used for motor vehicle engines and rail engines.
3. Naphtha: It is used for fertilizers manufacturing.
 4. Mineral Turpentine Oil (MTO): It is used in paint industries as solvent.
5. Aviation Turpentine Oil (ATO): It is Used for Aviation engines (Aircrafts)
6. Kerosene: It is mostly used for lighting and cooking stoves.
7. High Speed Diesel (HSD): It is used for motor vehicle engines and rail
engines.
8. Light Speed Oil (LSO): it is used for engines, which are used in agriculture,
etc.
9. Fuel Oil: This is mostly used in industries for heaters.
10. Asphalt: This is used for making roads and water frosting.
11. Low Sulphur Heavy Stock: It is used as fuel for industries and boilers from
low sulfur crude processing. This is used in ships also.
12. Jute Batching Oil: It is used in Jute Industries, in the starting stage of
weaving the jute material.
13. Wash Oil: It is used for detergent manufacturing industries.
14. Propylene: It is used as a feed for Andhra Petroleum Corporation limited.

The finished products are supplied to the fallowing major units:

1. Coromandal fertilizers limited.
2. Visakhapatnam Steel Plant.
3. HPCL, Visakh Terminal.
4. Indian Oil Corporation Limited.
5. Bharat Petro Chemicals Limited.
6. Andhra Petro Chemicals Limited.

Major units used for crude refining in Visakh Refinery:

1. Crude Distillation Unit (CDU)- I/ II/ III
2. Vacuum Distillation Unit (VDU)
3. Bitumen Blowing Unit: Plant Capacity Post VREP- II: 225 TMTPA
4. Vis breaker unit.
5. LPG Amine Unit.
6. LPG Meron Unit.
7. Gasoline Meron Unit.
8. Kerosene Meron Unit.
9. Propylene Recovery Unit.
THEVARIOUS PROCESSING UNITS IN HPCL:
1. CRUDE DISTILLATION UNIT (CDU):
Crude distillation unit is the primary processing unit.
CDU consists of two sections namely:

(i) ATMOSPHERIC SECTION:

The crude oil is first pre-heated from 30 degrees Centigrade to 125 degrees
Centigrade and pressure of about 10 kg/ cm enters the desalter. The salts from
crude oil are removed in the desalter unit. The desalter crude is boosted to a
pressure of 30 to 35 kg/cm and preheated in heat exchanges. The preheated
crude is then passed through the atmospheric furnace and heated at around
360 Degrees Centigrade.
This oil is allowed into the flesh zone of atmospheric distribution column with
steam to strip off the lighter products. The overhead vapours of the
atmospheric column are condensed in a receiver.
Heavy naphtha, kerosene/ ATF and diesel products are withdrawn as side
steams and stripped off at lighter ends with super heated steam in the
respective strippers. The bottom product in atmospheric column is called as
reduced crude oil (RCO).

(ii) VACCUM SECTION:

Hot reduced crude oil from atmospheric column bottom is heated in a vacuum
furnace to 380 degrees C and introduced into the flash zone of vacuum
column. A pressure of 720 mm Hg is maintained in vacuum column. The stop
distillate cut is withdrawn first. The hydrocarbon vapours rising in the column
are condensed into Heavy Vacuum Gas Oil (HVGO) and Light Vacuum Gas
Oil (LVGO). HVGO is fed to fluidized catalytic cracking unit as feed. The
bottom product of vacuum column is vacuum residue. The vacuum in the
column is maintained by a multi-stage ejector system.

2. FLUIDISED CATALYTIC CRACKING UNIT (FCCU):

The FCCU which takes feed of HVGO from CDU. This cracking process converts
heavy gas oils into more valuable hydrocarbons such as middle distillates,
gasoline and LPG. This unit can be broadly classified into two sections viz.
catalyst section and in the fractionators section. The reaction takes place in the
catalyst section and the resultant product is fractionated into final products in the
fractionators section.

The various produced in units of:

 Off gas
 Cracked LPG
 Cracked Gasoline
 Light Cycle Oil
 Heavy Cycle Oil
 Classified Oil

3. PROPYLENE RECOVERY UNIT (PRU):

The cracked LPG from merox unit is taken into caustic setter, LPG enters into C3-
C4 splitter, where the overhead gases are condensed and into consists of propane
and propylene. The propane and propylene are separated in C3-C4 splitter by
distillation. The column overload product propylene is sent to chemical treatment
system. The propylene after treatment is sent to spumes for storage.

4. SULPHER RECOVERY UNIT (SRU):

The Sore Fuel Gas (SFG) from FCCU contains the sulpher which has to be
removed, for controlling the pollution. In this unit the sulpher context from SFG is
removed by three sections viz., absorbs, recovery and melting section and the
sulpher free gas is sent to flame.

5. MEROX UNIT:
The LPG containing sulphur is treated here and the sulphur is removed from it.
The kerosene’s fresh point is increased in the unit and the sore water containing
gas is treated here and the water is recycled for usage.
 6. CAPTIVE POWER PLANT (CPP):
CPP meets the total power demand of the HPCL. This unit comprises of two Gas
Turbine Generators (GTGs) each of a MW capacity. The Gas Turbine is run by
HSD & Naphtha combustion.

7. STEAM GENERATION UNIT:

Steam generation unit is sub-divided into two, power plant-I and power plant-II.
In these units the DM water is converted into steam by combusting the fuel oil in
the pressure of air and ignition in boilers, and the carbon monoxide produced in
FCCU is burnt into Carbon Dioxide for pollution control and the heat produced is
used in boiler for steam production in power plant-II. The steams produced here
are utilized for unit purposes. The pressure of the steam produced is 30 kg/ cm.

8. DEMINERALISED WATER PLANT:

In this unit, the raw water is treated and the pH values of 7 is maintained by
making the water free from acid & base and making it a neutral solution to be
used in boilers.

9. EFFLUENT TREATMENT PLANT (ETP):

The waste water from every plant containing oil is treated her and the oil is
separated and reused. The remaining water containing contaminants is neutralised
and sent to the sea, to control the environmental pollution.

VISAKH REFINERY PERFORMANCE:

State owned Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (Visakh Refinery) is
expecting a 42% growth in met profit for the fiscal ended March 2004. “During 2002-
03, VR met profit was around Rs. 700 Crores and in 2003-04 it will cross Rs.1,000
Crores. We have achieved more than 100% capacity utilization in 2003-04”.

During 2003-04, VR processed 7.56 million tones of crude as compared with 6.8
million tones in the year, before thus registering a growth of 11%. The refineries
processing capacity was upgraded from four million tones to 7.5 million tones in 2000
year.
The refinery imported about 5.5 million tones of crude, and procured crude worth 1.2
million tones from the Krishna-Godavari basin and 0.8 million tones from Bombay
high. The quality of crude oil from Bombay high and K-G basin is superior to
imported crude oil.

“Out of our total production 20% of petroleum products have been produced as per
Euro-2 norms. They are being distributed across 17 major cities in the countries
including Hyderabad. The remaining 80% products meet the euro-1 norms by 2005-
06 80% of the production will meet Euro-2 norms and 20% production will be
upgraded to Euro-3 standards”.

ORGANIZATION – DEPARTMENTALIZATION OF FUNCTIONS:

HPCL-Visakh Refinery Organisation has departments; chief general manager is the
superior. He is the head of the 9 departments. Each and Every department has a
separate head for it to look after its functions. Their functions are as follows:

1. OPERATIONS DEPARTMENT:
This department again is divided into various sections/ units i.e., crude, crude
distillation, fuel catalyst unit, plant recovery unit, crude process unit etc. all
operations will be seen by the operations DGM, under him is the chief
manager followed by senior manager then by manager then by senior
operations officers.
2. MAINTENANCE DEPARTMENT :
This department has several sections. Light vehicles, heavy vehicles sections
electrical etc. These people repair the pumps, machines oil. DGM is the head
of the department; under him is the chief manager, Sr. manager Deputy
Manager etc.

3. MATERIAL DEPARTMENT:
Under this department they procure the materials, purchase order and supply
the materials to the sections according to their orders. These functions are seen
by the DGM materials. Under him is chief manager, Sr. manager, manager.
Deputy Manager Etc.
4. PROJECT DEPARTMENT:
according to the project department i.e., the drawings of mew plants
modifying the existing plants are done .this work is seen by the DGM projects
who is the head of the department under him are chief manager, Sr. assistant
and Jr. assistant.

5. DHDS (De Hydro De Sulfure) UNIT:

The main functions of this department are removing the sulphur content. The
DGM is the head .under him are one manager and one engineer.

6. TECHNICAL DEPARTMENT:
According to the technical department they supervise the technology
functioning and also see if any new technology is to be adopted and
accordingly the planning division plans for it. It has the DGM who is the head
of the department. Under him is the chief manager. Sr. manager (Technical),
manager planning, etc.

7. HUMAN RESOURCE DEPARTMENT:

This department sees all the managerial and operative functions. It also sees to
the welfare of the employees .DGM is the head of the department. Under him
are Sr. manager-HR; Sr. Manager (IR); Sr. manager (training), under them are
managers Deputy Managers and officers.
8. FINANCE DEPARTMENT:
The main function of this department is to prepare the budget. These budgets
are two types:
1. Plan capital budget.
2. Non-capital plan budget.
All finance functions are seen by this department DGM finance is the head of
the department. Under him is Chief Manager, Sr. manager, Manager, Deputy
Manager etc.
 9. FIRE& SAFETY DEPARTMENT:
The main function of this department is to see the safety of the employees as
well as the plant they give the protection equipment to prevent one –self from
being injured under him are chief manager, Sr. fire manager etc.

ORGANISATIONAL SET UP
The corporation is managed by a Board of Directors. The Board consists of CMD-
four full time functional directors, 3 ex-office part time directors and four part time
non-official directors, all appointed by the Government. The functional Directors are
assisted by Chief General Managers, General Managers etc. Who have under their
span of control officers up to the level of Deputy General Managers and support staff
(secretarial, Clerical & labour) from part of the non-officer category in the
organisational setup.

MANPOWER PARTICULARS:
TYPES OF MANPOWER AT VR:

The employees in the non-management categories are represented by RW1, RW2,

RW3, RW4, and RW5 which mean refinery workers.
The employees in the management categories in the management categories are
represented by grades from A to I.

Group ‘C’ Consists of RW 3, RW 4 and RW 5 they are administrators, junior assistant

and senior assistants.

Group ‘D’ represent the employees in the non-management category. This group
consists of RW 1 and RW 2. They are Generators and Handyman.
 GRADE TYPE OF EMPLOYEE

A Officers, Engineers, Superintendents

B Senior officers, Sr. Engineers, Sr. superintendents

C Deputy Managers

D Managers

E Senior Managers

F Chief Managers

G Deputy General Managers

H General Managers

I Chief General Managers

TYPES OF MANPOWER IN HPCL-VR:

SL. No. Category of Workers No. of Employees

1. Non-Management Category 734

2. Managerial Category 423

Total 1157

EMPLOYEE CLASSIFICATION:
1. Non-Management Employees:
All clerical, labour and operatives who may be represented by a trade union or
otherwise and whose terms and conditions of services are determined through the
process of collective bargaining.
2. Management Employees:
All managerial, Supervisory professional and technical personnel other than clerical
labour and operational whom the corporation has appointed in management cadre. All
recruitment for this category is centralised and handled by Recruitment & Manpower
Planning Division (RMPD), HRD at the corporate office in Mumbai.