Singapore: Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) has restarted two of three crude distillation units (CDUs) at a 300,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) plant that was closed more than a week ago because of water shortages, traders said on Monday.
The last of the CDUs is undergoing maintenance and is expected to restart in the second half of May.
“Oil products supplies should be back to normal and this is already reflected in their tenders offering cargoes for June loading,” said a Singapore-based trader.
MRPL issued tenders to sell a total of 151,000 tonnes of oil products for June loading from New Mangalore port located in Southern India.
The tenders close on 9 May, with bids to stay valid until 10 May.
The state-run firm, a subsidiary of Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), usually exports around two to three cargoes of naphtha a month.
But it could only ship out a naphtha cargo for late May because local authorities stopped water supply to the plant from the nearby Nethravathi river.
A regional court on 25 April directed local authorities to supply 2 million gallons per day of water to MRPL, said the company’s managing director U.K. Basu.
He added that the authorities have assured restoration of full water supplies in “days to come”.
