Coal news and updates

RIL not averse to pet coke export

March 04: Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), India’s largest petroleum coke manufacturer, is not averse to resorting to export of the material, including that to Pakistan, if opportunity exists, a source in the company told ICMW.

“We had been exporting pet coke for past many years, including to Pakistan where we were exporting since last nearly 15 years. But right now there is sufficient demand within India and as such export is not a priority,” the source said.

The company had been exporting pet coke to Pakistan via Karachi from where the material was being taken to consumption points near Lahore via rail.

Towards end of February, HPCL-Mittal Energy Ltd (HMEL) had exported two trucks of petcoke thorough land route via Wagah border on trial basis from its Bhatinda refinery.

Incidentally, India and Pakistan had recently agreed to increase bi-lateral trade through land route and the shipment of petcoke via Wagah border was the outcome of that agreement. Prior to that only a few selected commodities were allowed to be traded between India and Pakistan through Wagah border.

“We may look at exporting pet coke to Pakistan via land route or Wagah border if the logistics is found to be suitable because our material has to be moved by rakes or trucks to Indian part of Punjab and from there it has to be taken across the border to Lahore,” the source added.

“However, we are not pushing much for exports, but can export if there is excess material,” the RIL source said, adding, around 10% of company’s total production capacity of around 500,000-600,000 tons per month is not being utilised due to maintenance shutdowns.

“If we can save that 10% and can operate at peak rated capacity, then we can look at export,” the source added.

RIL had two cokers and one of it had undergone maintenance shutdown in November 2013 and then again partial maintenance shutdown in January and February 2014.

“These maintenance shutdowns, though not complete shutdown, had to be taken for obvious reasons. These kinds of maintenance shutdown had to be taken at least five times in a year, which means upto 10% production loss for 10-15 days, but that is, generally speaking, not affecting supplies in the domestic market,” the source added.