The Jamnagar Refinery is a global-scale processor of petroleum crudes into fuels, commodity, and specialty chemicals
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Planning and construction for the Jamnagar Refinery and processing facilities began in the late 1990s with additional tranches of investment continuing to present. After the 2008 expansion this is likely the single largest investment in plant facilities in India. The 2008 enlargement is estimated to have required more than 100 staff millennia to complete. As a major employer in Gujarat State (India) it is difficult to scope employment although (direct and indirect) workers and administrative for the energy and chemical business units of RIL number in the tens of thousands. The Jamnagar Refinery complex is a critical component for the Indian economy and development of human capital.
As an example of resilience, during the 2020 Covid-19 downturn the complex rapidly pivoted from the domestic Indian market for fiber-polymers to global markets while quadrupling export volumes (via Maersk). Idling the polymer production would have cost over USD$80M whereas instead exports to global markets made gains.
Reliance is planning for the migration away from fuels consumption as global “green energy” transformation proceed. Targets are for Jamnagar to use more than 70% of production capacity for crude-to-chemical high value processing in the long term.
In 2022, an additional pivot is underway to produce high-value fuels from low-cost crudes. Traditional markets for fuels output include Europe, Turkey, and USA. Indian import of Russian-produced crudes has historically been negligible. In May 2022 imports of Russian crudes were 800Kbpd with multiple estimates for June 2022 at 1,000Kbpd.
The next post discusses the refinery’s technical specs.
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