Andhra: HPCL launches Very Low Sulphur Fuel Oil for shipping Industry

Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh) [India], Jan 3 (ANI): Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) has launched IMO-2020 compliant Very Low Sulphur Fuel Oil (VLSFO) for shipping industry ahead of the deadline of January 1.
The launch took place here on Thursday by the Chairman and Managing Director in presence of Director - Refineries, Mukesh Kumar Surana, Vinod S Shenoy, Director - Marketing, Rakesh Misri, Executive Director - Direct Sales, 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 January 1, 2020.
"HPCL has always been at the forefront of providing cleaner and sustainable solutions. From January 1, 2020, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) has enforced a 0.5 per cent global Sulphur cap on fuel for areas which till December 31, 2019, were allowed to use fuel oil with 3.5 per cent Sulphur," Surana said in a statement.
"In these areas, all ships are now required to use fuel with a maximum Sulphur content of 0.5 per cent, unless they use exhaust gas cleaning systems like scrubbers," he added.
He further said 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," he said.
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 an 11.3 MMTPA Joint Venture Refinery (HMEL) at Bhatinda in Punjab. It is also establishing another nine MMTPA refinery and petrochemical complex at Barmer in Rajasthan," an official release said.
HPCL has the largest lube refinery in India at Mumbai and owns the second largest cross country petroleum pipeline network and 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," it added. (ANI)