The Mathura Refinery, owned by

Indian Oil Corporation Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL; d/b/a IndianOil) is a central public sector undertaking under the ownership of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Government of India. It is headquartered in New Delhi. It is a public sector und ...

, is the sixth refinery of IndianOil located in

Mathura Mathura () is a city and the administrative headquarters of Mathura district in the states and union territories of India, Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is located approximately north of Agra, and south-east of Delhi; about from the to ...

Uttar Pradesh, India Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

. The refinery processes low sulphur crude from

Bombay High The Mumbai High Field, formerly called the Bombay High Field, is an offshore oilfield 176 km off the west coast of Mumbai, in Gulf of Cambay region of India, in about 75 m of water. The oil operations are run by India's Oil and Natural ...

, imported low sulphur crude from

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of G ...

, and high sulphur crude from the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...

. The refinery, which cost Rs.253.92 crores to build, was commissioned on 19 January. Construction began on the refinery in October 1972. The foundation stone was laid by Indira Gandhi, the former

prime minister of India The prime minister of India ( IAST: ) is the head of government of the Republic of India. Executive authority is vested in the prime minister and their chosen Council of Ministers, despite the president of India being the nominal head of th ...

. The FCCU and Sulphur Recovery Units were commissioned in January, 1983. The refinery was commissioned with a refining capacity of 6.0 million

tonne The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton ( United State ...

s per year and The refining capacity of this refinery was expanded to 7.5 million tonnes per year in 1989 by debottlenecking and revamping. A DHDS Unit was commissioned in 1989 for production of HSD with low

sulphur Sulfur (or sulphur in British English) is a chemical element with the symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms form cyclic octatomic molecules with a chemical formula ...

content of 0.25% wt. ( max.). The present refining capacity of this refinery is 8.00 million tonnes per year. In January 2009, the plant shut down for a period of time due to a strike. It is located about 50 kilometers away from the

Taj Mahal The Taj Mahal (; ) is an Islamic ivory-white marble mausoleum on the right bank of the river Yamuna in the Indian city of Agra. It was commissioned in 1631 by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan () to house the tomb of his favourite wife, Mu ...

. It is currently asking the Indian government to allow an expansion, raising the capacity to 11 million tonnes. The refinery also wants to create a new garbage disposal site, which has garnered new outrage from environmental activists because the site will be located even closer to the Taj Mahal and Mathura. The Indian government hired a panel to examine the effects of the refinery on the Taj Mahal. The panel found that the air has high levels of suspended particulate matter, caused by factory emissions, dust, construction, and exhaust from automobiles. These are causing the Taj Mahal to change color. However, contribution of Mathura Refinery for causing pollution has not been established. In 1998 the plant was awarded the "Best of all"

Rajiv Gandhi National Quality Award The Rajiv Gandhi National Quality Award is the national quality award given by the Bureau of Indian Standards to Indian organisations that show excellence in their performance. It is named after Rajiv Gandhi, the former Prime Minister of India, ...

. Presently Mathura Refinery is producing BS VI standard fuels and supplying to Delhi NCR. A corporate MyStamp of the refinery has also been published by the Postal Department for recognising the contributions of the refinery towards environment conscience.

References

Oil refineries in India Mathura Indian Oil Corporation Energy in Uttar Pradesh India–Soviet Union relations Soviet foreign aid Indian Oil Corporation buildings and structures 1982 establishments in Uttar Pradesh Energy infrastructure completed in 1982 {{India-struct-stub

See also

References