The Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) has pushed back the completion of expansion at its Vizag refinery in Andhra Pradesh to at least October-November 2020 due to a labour shortage and the onset of monsoon.

HPCL initially planned to complete the Rs 209.28 billion (USD 2.77 billion) expansion, which will nearly double the capacity of its plant to 3,00,000 barrels per day (bpd), in July 2020.

The expansion includes replacement of a smaller crude distillation unit with a new 1,80,000 bpd at the refinery

HPCL is also building facilities including 0.352 million tpa naphtha isomerisation unit, 3.053 million tpa hydrocracker and power plant that can run on either naphtha or natural gas.

The project also involves revamp of units including 30 percent increase in capacity of naphtha hydrotreater to 1.5 million tpa and diesel hydrotreater to 2.86 million tpa, while the capacity of continuous catalytic cracker will be raised to 1.039 million tpa.