With an increase in crude oil supplies from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), the Attock Refinery Limited (ARL) plans an investment of $100 million this year to double its output to 60,000 tonnes per month within the next two years.
ARL Manager HR and Admin Asif Saeed told reporters on the refinery visit that they plan to invest $30 million in the Pre Flash Unit as the supply of crude oil is expected to increase from 20,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 40,000 bpd due to the start of production from discoveries in KP.
While another investment of $75 million would be made in the isomerisation unit that would allow complete conversion of crude oil into petrol without any naphtha content. At present, the refinery produces 7,000 tonnes of naphtha per month that is exported.
During the last decade, the refinery output had averaged above 30,000 tonnes per month. The new investment by the 1922 built refinery, located in the outskirts of Rawalpindi, would help meet rising needs of petroleum products in northern Punjab, KP, FATA, GB and AJK. He said that a part of the investment would be made through working capital while for the rest, banks would be approached. With regards to start of the projects, he said, “the projects will be awarded for construction by the end of the year”. The projects will need two years for completion.
Saeed said that they were expecting crude oil supplies of 20,000 to 25,000 bpd from the Tal Block in KP in the near future. “The new investment will enhance refining capacity to more than 50,000 bpd”. At present, ARL has a refining capacity of 20,000 bpd. It uses locally produced crude oil for refining. The company enhanced its production previously in 1981 when a significant oil discovery was made in Chakwal.
ARL also produces 50,000 tonnes of diesel per month. He said they were negotiating price incentives with the government to make an investment of $125 million in the diesel hydro desulfurisation unit (DHDU) to bring sulphur content at par with Euro II standards. The refinery has the lowest sulphur content of 0.5 per cent in its produced diesel already as compared to other local refineries that have one per cent sulphur content. The government wants us to attain Euro II standards. We are ready to invest a huge amount but require a price incentive to recover our investment, he said. The Attock Group also plans a cross country pipeline project from Machike-Taru Jabba-Peshawar. The white oil pipeline requires an investment of $270 million.
The group also operates a 165 MW IPP that commenced operations in 2009. It also plans to set up another 200 MW IPP and is negotiating on the site of the project with the government. “The government has proposed some sites to us and if an appropriate site was selected, then the IPP would be set up in the next two years”, he said.
