Overview
The BPCL Kochi Refinery, embarked on its journey in 1966 with a capacity of 50,000 barrels per day. Formerly known as Cochin Refineries Limited, the refinery was originally established as a joint venture in collaboration with Phillips Petroleum Corporation, USA. It was later renamed as Kochi Refineries Limited, and today, it is a frontline entity as a unit of the Fortune 500 Company.
Kochi Refinery is located at Ambalamugal, near Kochi in Kerala, and 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 feedstocks and specialty products in addition to its range of quality fuels.
The products of this fuel based refinery include 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, Mineral Turpentine Oil, Sulphur and Hydrogen.
The BPCL Kochi Refinery has been recertified for the highly coveted Integrated Management System (IMS) by M/s Bureau Veritas Certification for having complied with the requirements of best standards and practices in the areas of Quality Management, Environment Management and Occupational Safety and Health Management. By virtue of this, KR is certified to Quality Management System - ISO 9001:2008, Environment Management System - ISO 14001:2004 and Occupational Health & Safety Management System - OHSAS 18001:2007.
With the prestigious Crude Oil receipt facilities consisting of Single Point Mooring (SPM) and associated shore tank farm in place since December 2007, the Kochi refinery is equipped to receive crude oil in Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs). This facility helps the 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.
The refinery has facilities to evacuate products to the consuming centres through road, rail andships through pipelines. All the major industries in the area are connected to the refinery for product receipt. The BPCL installation at Irumpanam is connected to the refinery via pipelines and 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.
The Capacity Expansion cum Modernisation Project (Phase–II), has been successfully completed and now Kochi Refinery has a refining capacity of 9.5 MMTPA and could produce auto-fuels conforming to Euro-III and partly Euro-IV specifications.
The Refinery has presently embarking on the Integrated Refinery Expansion Project which would increase the refining capacity of KR from 9.5 MMTPA to 15.5 MMTPA and improve the auto-fuel quality to Euro-IV/V levels to meet the growing demand of petroleum products in Indian market. This would also upgrade the refinery residue stream to value added distillates and create synergy for future diversification into value added petrochemical products.
Kochi Refinery has also initiated the Propylene Derivative Petrochemical Project which would help KR to produce value added petrochemical products.
Kochi 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 three 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 refinery area includes 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 over 43 million accident free man-hours stand 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 entity, community welfare initiatives of the refinery concentrate on developing the weaker sections of society in important sectors like health, education, water management, housing and women empowerment. In the vicinity, Kochi Refinery has carried out various projects in the CSR thrust areas of BPCL. Educational schemes as Capability Exploration and Enabling Programme have helped school students to understand their innate potential and pursue higher academic performance. The recently conducted skill development programme had empowered 1000 unemployed youth. For differently-abled children, there is a home based rehabilitation scheme. New and modern facilities have been extended to major Government hospitals and schools in the neighbourhood. 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.