After a gap of two weeks, Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) began operations on Thursday. Acute water shortage to the refinery had forced MRPL to shut down all its units at the refinery. The decision to begin operations at the refinery follows the release of water by Dakshina Kannada district administration.

Speaking to Business Line , Mr P.P. Upadhya, Director (Technical) of MRPL, said that with the Dakshina Kannada district administration indicating normal supply of water to the refinery, the operations began on Thursday.

A company release said here that the refinery has already commissioned units such as CCR-I (continuous catalytic regeneration) and CDU-II (crude distillation unit). “Commissioning of hydrogen generation unit, hydrocracker unit-I, gas oil hydrodesulphurization unit (GOHDS) and CCR-II has been started and expected to be on stream by April 28,” it said.

The release said that the Karnataka High Court has passed an order to draw 2 MGD (million gallons a day) of water from Nethravathi River on April 25. It said that the deputy commissioner of the district has agreed to supply water at the rate of 5 MGD with immediate effect as Thumbe dam on the Nethravathi is overflowing to sea. A formal consent from the office of the deputy commissioner is awaited, it said.

However, the company release said that commissioning of phase-III expansion units will be kept on hold till the increase in water supply, at a rate of 8.5 MGD, is sanctioned by the Karnataka Government. The planned shutdown of hydrocracker-II for 45 days and other associated units will continue, and shall be completed by May-end, it added.

Sources in the company had earlier said the shutdown of the refinery had resulted in average loss of around Rs 20 crore a day. The refinery was not in operation for almost two weeks since April 12.

On Thursday, the scrip of MRPL closed at Rs 61.65 on the BSE, up 0.41 per cent against the previous closing of Rs 61.40.

>vinayakaj@thehindu.co.in

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