MRPL (Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd) will increase its refining capacity by another 6 million tonnes by 2021.

Addressing mediapersons after the 24th AGM of MRPL here on Saturday, Sudhir Vasudeva, Chairman of the company, said the refining capacity of MRPL would be increased from the existing 15 MTPA (million tonnes per annum), to 18 MTPA in the current five-year plan. The plan is to increase the capacity to 21 MTPA by 2021, he said.

To a query on the complete commissioning of the third phase expansion project of the company, P. P. Upadhya said they are hopeful of a complete commissioning of the third phase of the refinery by March 2013. The third phase work is aimed at increasing the refining capacity from 11.82 MTPA to 15 MTPA.

The company commissioned some of the units of phase III such as crude distillation unit and vacuum distillation unit on March 29, thus making it a 15 MTPA refinery.

To a question on the problems associated with water availability in summer and its impact on refinery operations, Upadhya said this year they will get additional 4 MGD (million gallons a day) of sewage-treated water for refinery operations from the Mangalore City Corporation. This is in addition to the water allocated to the refinery from the nearby vented dam.

>vinayak.aj@thehindu.co.in