HPCL Launches Very Low Sulphur Fuel Oil (VLSFO) for Shipping Industry on 2nd January 2020, at Visakhapatnam

by Suman Gupta

Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) launched IMO-2020 compliant Very Low Sulphur Fuel Oil (VLSFO) at Visakhapatnam on 2^nd January 2020 at the hands of Shri Mukesh Kumar Surana, Chairman & Managing Director in presence of Director – Refineries, Shri Vinod S Shenoy, Director – Marketing, Shri Rakesh Misri, Executive Director – Direct Sales, Shri Ajit Singh and other top officials. The first batch of VLSFO is already produced in Visakh Refinery of HPCL in early December 2019, ahead of the deadline of 1^st January 2020.

Shri Surana said that HPCL has always been in the forefront of providing cleaner and sustainable solutions. From 1^st January 2020, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) has enforced a 0.5% global Sulphur cap on fuel for areas which till 31^st December 2019 were allowed to use fuel oil with 3.5% Sulphur.  In these areas, all ships are now required to use fuel with a maximum Sulphur content of 0.5%, unless they use exhaust gas cleaning systems like Scrubbers.

Shri Surana brought out that HPCL’s VLSFO will help the shipping companies to respond to the tightening regulation on Sulphur dioxide emissions by offering this IMO-2020 compliant marine fuel. The product meets the Residual Marine Grade (RMG) 0.50 Specification and ISO 8217:2017 standard requirements. This fuel also meets all quality guidelines detailed by the International Organization of Standardization in its recently released ISO 23263:2019 standard.

HPCL owns and operates two major Refineries strategically located in Visakhapatnam on the east coast and Mumbai on the west coast.  To continue with its commitment towards environment protection, HPCL has undertaken measures at both the refineries to produce BS-VI compliant transport fuels before the stipulated schedule. In addition, both refineries have also taken up ambitious expansion projects to increase Visakh Refinery capacity from 8.33 to 15 MMTPA and Mumbai Refinery capacity from 7.5 to 9.5 MMTPA. HPCL has a 11.3 MMTPA Joint Venture Refinery (HMEL) at Bhatinda in Punjab. It is also establishing another 9 MMTPA Refinery & Petrochemical Complex at Barmer in Rajasthan. HPCL has the largest lube refinery in India at Mumbai and owns second largest cross country petroleum pipeline network and a vast marketing infrastructure in the country.

HPCL is committed to consistently achieve the economic, ecological and social responsibility objectives of sustainable development through varied operations in all its business activities