MRPL shuts down two-third of refinery due to water shortage

Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals (MRPL) today said it has shut down two-third of its 15 million tonne refinery in Karnataka due to shortage of water. MRPL, a subsidiary of state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), in a regulatory filing said operations at Mangalore refinery would be impacted till arrival of monsoon rains makes up for stoppage of water supply to the plant from the nearby Nethravathi river. Click here for Cloud Computing Also Read Related Stories News Now - Numaligarh refinery plans maintenance after fire - Singapore's Trafigura to invest Rs 1,250 cr in Indian refinery - BPCL panel to examine cause of Assam refinery fire - Reliance shares hit by more analyst cuts - Fire doused at Numaligarh Refinery, incurs loss - Fire at Assam refinery, ULFA claims responsibility "The refinery was receiving around 5.5 mgd water from Nethravathi river. Water availability in the Nethravathi river and its downstream dams started depleting from the end of March. "As a result the district authorities enforced reduction of water supply to MRPL to one-third level and finally on April 11, 2012, completely stopped the intake of water from the Nethravathi river," the company said. MRPL has three crude units -- Phase I of 4.68 million tonne, Phase II of 7.14 million tonne and Phase III of 3 million tonne -- and supplies oil products in southern states. The shutdown would lead to shortage of supply of products to MRPL fed locations. MRPL said it had reserve water to meet just one-and-a-half days of full load operation of the refinery. "In order to overcome the situation and pulling on the resources for next couple of days till rainfall starts, it has been decided to shut down the Phase-II and Phase-II units with immediate effect," it said adding the company continues to watch the situation and would initiate necessary action as deemed fit from time to time. "There will be shortage of supply of products to MRPL fed locations," it said. Further, MRPL may have to incur additional demurrage on account of delay in unloading crudes because of ullage problem and loading of products.