Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd will shut a 500,000 tonnes a year continuous catalytic cracker from end September or early October for maintenance for 20 days.

Mr UK Basu MD of Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Petroleum Conference said that "The exact date has not been finalized. It depends on the monsoon. We don't want to shut units during the rains.”

Mr Basu said that all shutdowns at the plant would be over by November.

The company operates a 236,400 barrel per day refinery in the coastal city of Mangalore in southern India.

MRPL would go ahead with a planned shutdown of a 93,600 bpd crude unit for 45 day from November 9 and a hydrocracker from September 16 for 25 days for a revamp.

(Sourced from Reuters)