KARACHI: Byco Oil Pakistan Limited has announced that the company has completed its oil refinery at Lasbella district, Balochistan, which is the country’s largest and will have the capacity to refine 120,000 barrels of oil per day.
According to a press release issued on Wednesday, the refinery is in the pre-commissioning stage as plants and equipment are being checked and tested.
Cold circulation of crude oil has already been established and sustained. Also furnaces of different processing units have been test-fired.
“The refinery is ready for hot commissioning and start-up,” Byco said. Combined with the existing and fully operative smaller refinery, the cumulative refining capacity of Byco will be over 155,000 barrels per day, 55% higher than the existing largest refinery in Pakistan.
This will enhance overall crude oil refining capacity of the country from existing 12.25 to 18 million tons per year and will significantly contribute to reducing import of refined petroleum products.
In his comments, Byco Oil CEO Qaiser Jamal stated, “This milestone, for sure, has been made possible with sheer hard work of our employees and support and cooperation of all our contractors.”
Byco said along with the new refinery, whose capacity can be expanded to 180,000 bpd, the country’s first isomerisation plant was also being started. Isomerisation technology will not only enable the refinery to produce higher volumes of motor gasoline to meet demand, but this will be the first environment-friendly motor gasoline.
First parcel of crude oil for the refinery will arrive at the single-point mooring 10 km into the Arabian Sea, for direct discharge to the refinery’s storage tanks.
With an investment of over $600 million, Byco also operates a petroleum marketing network comprising 222 retail outlets.
Amir Abbassciy, CEO of Byco Industries Incorporated said, “These are the first significant steps towards achieving our aim to be an integrated oil to chemicals and related infrastructure business.”
Published in The Express Tribune, December 20th, 2012.
COMMENTS (4)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
@Amir Waheed Ahmed: Waheed shb. Sadly I represent the majority that has no idea what is behind investments like these.meg 20 year tax holiday, banks and creditors owed money for years,NAND worst of all,mthjs is merely a 30 year old refinery that was decommissioned in the west and scrapped that boycott has brought over to pakistan where it's inefficiencies will be paid for by u and in terms of high petrol prices and the owners just skim money away. Also please see who owns a majority stake in this refinery that will show u why someone seems to "invest"'in pakistan.
In Pakistan, after a very long time there is something to celebrate, I salute to the management because Byco had the courage to go ahead with this multi-million dollar project when there are lot of uncertainties. The business conditions were at there worst levels and no one is interested to put there money in the country.
It's still a long way to go but am sure Byco will manage all hurdles on there way and one day we will be proud to its achievements.
Great, maybe now their creditors can get their money back which Byco hasn't paid for over 3 years.
Great Achievement Indeed