News at Bosicor |
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RELOCATION REFINERIES- BOSICOR'S INSTANCE
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Monday, March 19, 2007
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Short Description:
The spokesman of Bosicor Pakistan Limited (Bosicor) informed The Business Recorder, the following in relation to the news item on the criteria of relocation of oil refineries, published in The Business Recorder on 16th February 2007. |
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News Detail:
An oil refinery consists of two components i.e the process plants and the storage/offsite/utilities which are interrelated to each other. In the case of a relocated refinery project, only the process plants are relocated while the storage/offsite/utilities are to be built up locally. In Bosicor too the hardware is a mix of relocated parts and new equipment. The relocated parts are of process segment which were refitted primarily in the United States of America before relocation to Pakistan. The refitting was carried out by replacements with new critical components to attain safety, economic life and efficiency required for the operation of the refinery according to the applicable codes, practices and hazop. The rest of the equipment and hardware are new, sizeable and even more than the relocated ones. The new equipment plant and machinery comprises Crude Oil Receiving Gantries, Crude Oil Storage Tanks, All Services and Utilities, including Electricals, Instrumentation, Power and Water Generation, Laboratories, Emergency Response Units, Product Storage and Product Shipping Gantries and Pipeline Networks.
Relocation of all kinds of plants, including refinery plants is a common practice all over the world, Europe and USA being no exception. Bosicor's refinery is not the only example of relocation in the country, as other Plants have been relocated prior to this with examples available in the Fertilizer industry where Engro Chemicals Pakistan Ltd. took the pioneering step, followed by Fauji Foundation and more recently, the Fatima Group. Engro Chemicals Pakistan Limited also recently announced its group's back-ward integration plant for the PVC, which too is based on relocation of a plant from USA.
Technical problems can be faced by plants during the commissioning stages, whether the plant is new or relocated. Bosicor did face some teething problems in the beginning which are being progressively rectified. The debottlenecking and revamping of the plant is currently under way. The progress of the works has been personally witnessed by the officials of Ministry of Petroleum in recent visit to Bosicor, who showed their full satisfaction.
Refining margins are a major contributor to the refinery's management decision on planning refining capacities and maintaining thruputs. As such only the refinery's name-plate capacity can not be taken as the basis for arriving at a conclusion that the refinery was operating at above or below capacity due to operational or technical reasons alone. Furthermore, the country's overall demand and supply balance linked with the logistics of oil movement is a key factor for the operational capacity of a refinery.
Finally, it will be very pertinent to mention that our Country requires industrialization that can economically justify its existence without burdening the Government for financial or economic guarantee and in this respect Bosicor is the only Refinery to operate in Pakistan which has never asked for or received any subsidy from the Government.
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