National Refinery Limited: - a major factor in oil products market

Economic Review, April, 2001

National Refinery Limited (NRL), the premier oil refining company in the country, commenced production as a small capacity lubricant base of oils and asphalts production refinery.

The Lube Oil Refinery installed in 1966, had a nameplate giving crude oil processing capacity as 600,000 metric tonnes and production of 76,000 and 100,000 million tonnes lubes and asphalt as per annum. Light Diesel Oil, (LDO) and kerosene were NRL's other products. NRL has been a keen and consistent player in the downstream petroleum refining sector of Pakistan, ever since.

In 1977, plant expansion programmes led to installation of a refinery of 1.5 million tonnes perannum crude oil processing capacity. This extended the market reach of NRL' by inclusion of the fuel products like LPG, motor gasoline, kerosene, jet fuels, HSD and furnace oil in its product portfolio. These two initial steps set the direction and magnitude forfurther plant expansions, integrations and product upgradations.

The setting up of BTX plant (1979) downstream of the fuel refinery has been a valuable product portfolio expansion measure as it provides pure petrochemicals, Benzene, Toluene and Xylene for the speciality chemicals market. Toluene chemical was made available for usage at NRL's own Dewaxing units, which provided for inplant integration. Requirements of Toluene for Defence purposes are also fulfilled by NRL.

The installation of Propane Recovery Unit (1980), downstream of the fuel refinery, also served further inplant integration by providing Propane for in-house usage at Propane Deasphalting units and for refrigeration requirements at Lube Base Oil Units.

The fuel refinery production initially resulted in excess production of furnace oil. This continued to be exported till 1986, when the second Lube Base Oil Refinery for production of 100,000 million tonnes Lube Base Oils was installed. This marked the beginning of upgrading reduced crude furnace-oil Lube Base Oils, the value-added products.

In 1991, another opportunity came for plant expansion, when country's fuel product demand and fuel refinery configuration paved the way for fuel refinery revamping. The addition of a pre-flash column and pre-heat train provided for enhancing crude processing capacity of fuel refinery by 30% to 2.2 million tonnes per annum. The total crude processing capacity of National Refinery was thus enhanced to almost3.0 million tonnes perannum.

The installation of Fuel Refinery, BTX Plant, the Second Lube Base Oil Refinery and revamp (balancing and modernization) of the fuel refinery are major milestones for NRL in respect of capacity enhancementand productand plant integrations. These efforts are continuing. The balancing and modernization of Platforming Unit undertaken in 1995 and installation of larger sized reactors in 1997, increased production of high octane reformats by 70% enhancing potential for production of high quality low lead motorgasolene product.

To decrease dependence on purchased power supplies, a 4.0 MW Diesel Power Generation unitand a 7.5 MW Steam Power Generation unit have recently been installed. Water sources are being developed to acquire own water supply source. In this respect Reverse Osmosis Plant of 2000,000 gallons perday capacity will be installed. Environment-friendly projects are being implemented to decrease effluent load and to conform to National Environment Quality Standards. On the product side, different options for the expansion of lube base oil production are being reviewed. For up-gradation of furnace oil, installation of a mild hydro-cracking plant is being evaluated.

Commitment to consumers' interest and quality of products are enshrined in NRL's values. Quality standards are enforced at each stage of production. This stance is valued for all the Lube Base Oil Products, fuel products, asphalt's and speciality products. The use of NRL's Lube Base Oil by all major national and multinational companies to produce finished lubricants, testifies to high quality or N RL's products. N RL's fuel and asphalt products also have high reputation and penetration in the market.

NRL has grown and developed with in the country and today enjoys the special position of being a major factor in oil products market of the country with unequalled breadth and width of products. This became possible with forward planning fully geared to industrial sector development efforts of the country.