Numaligarh Refinery records impressive first-quarter results despite pandemic

GUWAHATI: Operation in Numaligarh Refinery is now almost back to normal. During the first quarter, crude throughput was 627 TMT which was around 8% lower than the corresponding period in the previous year. The fall in sale of petrol and diesel was only marginal to the extent of 9% despite constraints of lockdown in the face of COVID-19 pandemic. The refinery could also process around 8.1 TMT of Crude Oil imported from Petronas, Malaysia during the quarter. The LPG Bottling Plant has been working on 16 hours basis in 2 shifts to meet the growing demand of this clean cooking fuel in NE. NRL has been able to successfully implement its policy of "Work from Home" by leveraging its network infrastructure.

Commenting on the 1st quarter operation, NRL MD S. K. Barua said, "We are making all out efforts to sustain our normal refinery operation ensuring safety of all our employees and contractual staff despite bottlenecks encountered due to COVID-19 pandemic. We are trying to front load some of our Capex in the next couple of months as our project activities at all sites have started so that we are able to catch up our annual targets."

Progress of the various projects including the 2G Ethanol Bio Refinery plant has also picked up and at present, around 500 construction workers are working at site. The company could successfully award some of its major tender on expansion and pipeline project, stated a press release.

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