Commissioning Ahead of Schedule

Reliance Petroleum Ltd's 29 million tpa greenfield refinery coming up at Jamnagar special economic zone is 94 per cent complete, and is scheduled to commission ahead of its initial schedule of December 2008. According to an RPL statement, project EPC activities have been completed and construction activities are progressing to meet pre-commissioning requirements.
Civil construction is complete while all major equipment, including super-heavy equipment, has been installed and are at various pre-commissioning stages. Structural steel fabrication, pipe fabrication and underground piping works are nearing completion, the statement said.
While hydro-testing activities are in full swing, above-ground piping works are in an advanced stage of completion. In coming months, RPL, a subsidiary of Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Industries Ltd, is geared to sustain the pre-commissioning and commissioning activities on a fast-track basis, the statement added.
RPL's 29 million tpa refinery is expected to be the world's sixth largest petroleum refinery. Reliance Industries Ltd's 33 million tpa petroleum refinery at Jamnagar, commissioned in 1999, is today the world's third largest petroleum refinery.
According to unconfirmed reports, the world's largest petroleum refinery is Paraguana Refining Complex in Venezuela that processes 940,000 barrels of oil per day (or 47 million tonnes per year). Consisting of Amuay (630,000 bpd) and Cardon (310,000 bpd) refineries, the complex is owned by the state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA. The world's second largest refinery is the private sector SK Energy Company's 840,000 bpd (42 million tpa) facility in South Korea.