Mangaluru: Operations are proceeding smoothly at Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals Ltd.’s (MRPL) refinery, following the recent completion of a modernization project designed to increase the capacity and flexibility of crude oil processing at the plant.

With the third phase of the refinery’s expansion and upgrade project was recently completed, units are running consistently on a sustained basis, while crude throughputs, distillate yields, and energy consumption continues to stabilize, according to H. Kumar, the refinery’s managing director.

Additionally, with all secondary units now fully operational, the refinery is in the process of maximizing crude throughputs in order to attain higher margins, Kumar said.

MRPL, a subsidiary of Oil & Natural Gas Corp. Ltd., wrapped the long-delayed Phase 3 expansion and upgrading project in late 2014 after it completed start-up of the third train of a three-train sulfur recovery unit, a raw water treatment system, LPG mounded bullet storage tanks, and other related offsite facilities.

Separately, an integrated 440,000-tpy polypropylene unit, which will use the Mangalore refinery’s FCC production of LPG, light distillates, and propylene as feedstock, is scheduled to be commissioned by the end of February, MRPL said in its Feb. 13 filing.

A firm timeframe for when crude throughputs at Mangalore might reach the refinery’s fully expanded processing capacity was not disclosed.