Jamnagar: Twenty-five years ago, on December 28, 1999, Reliance launched its first refinery at Jamnagar, Gujarat. Today, Jamnagar has become the world’s refining hub – an engineering marvel that is India’s pride.
Majority of the experts had said that it would be impossible for an Indian company to set up the world’s largest grassroots refinery in three years. But Reliance achieved that in a world-record time of just 33 months, notwithstanding lack of infrastructure and a severe cyclone that had hit Jamnagar then. More importantly, the job was done at nearly 40% lesser cost (per tonne) in comparison to contemporary refineries in Asia. Between 1996 and 1999, Dhirubhai Ambani and his highly motivated team went on to create an engineering marvel at Jamnagar. The first private sector refinery of India single-handedly added 25% to India’s total refining capacity and made India self-sufficient in transport fuels.
Moreover, Reliance’s focused efforts to create a green zone in the arid land, the Jamnagar refining complex now boasts of Asia’s largest mango orchard, with over 1.5 lakh mango trees. The huge mangrove belt there has become a haven for migratory birds, and the surrounding dense forest houses the Vantara – the one-of-its-kind rehabilitation home for rescued wild species.
Reliance set up its first refinery on 5000 acres of barren and desolate land in 1999 at Motikhavdi village near Jamnagar. Starting in 1996, Reliance spent billions of manhours, and over $3.4 billion in capital costs to create the world’s largest grassroots refinery with 27 million tonne capacity. The refinery ranks among the most complex refineries in the world, and is, by far, the most sophisticated refinery in India. Reliance subsequently set up another SEZ refinery in 2008, making Jamnagar the world’s largest single-location refining centre. In the third phase of Jamnagar expansion, Reliance added some of the world’s largest and most unique downstream facilities such as Refinery Offgas Cracker, Petcoke Gasifier, Ethane imports, in addition to polyester chain and other polymers. Jamnagar is yet to reach its peak as Reliance’s commitment to Net Zero by 2035 means another transformation lies ahead for it. Also, Jamnagar is set to become the cradle of Reliance’s New Energy business, with the Dhirubhai Ambani New Energy Giga Complex commissioning soon.
Today, with 1.4 million barrels per day – nearly 1.5% of entire world’s refining capacity – Jamnagar is the world’s largest integrated, single-site refinery complex. The refinery has the world’s most unique distinction of processing 47 different grades of crude / feedstocks from various geographies across the globe. The facilities at Jamnagar are truly world-class in terms of operational flexibility, with maximum grade switching among different crudes for feedstock, and between gasoline and gasoil for outputs.
Making Cleanest Fuels Out of Dirtiest Crudes
The Reliance refineries at Jamnagar, along with multiple secondary and downstream processing units, have created the world’s most unique and largest single-location refining complex with a capability to process heavy, high sulphur, and acidic crudes.
Jamnagar refinery complex has the world’s most unique distinction of processing 247 different grades of crude / feedstocks from various geographies across the globe – including the sourest and the heaviest of crudes. No other refinery in the world has processed so many distinct kinds of crudes.
Jamnagar started with 9.93 on Nelson’s Complexity Index in 1999, raised it to 12.7 when the second refinery commissioned in 2009, and further increased it to 21.1 by 2019 when the third phase commissioned.
The very high degree of complexity indicates large secondary processing capacity that make it possible to use sour and heavy crude oils, and still produce the cleanest of fuels.
Today the Jamnagar refinery complex houses some of the world’s largest units, such as the Fluidised Catalytic Cracker (FCC), Coker, Alkylation, Paraxylene, Polypropylene, Refinery Off-Gas Cracker (ROGC) and Petcoke gasification plants.