Jamnagar Reliance Refinery Visit

YFLO Bombay members visited Reliance Jamnagar Refinery.The founder of the princely state of Jamnagar was the Jam Rawal, eventually came to be known as Jamnagar meaning the town of the Jams.The reason why the Ambanis chose Jamnagar for the refinery is because it’s the closest point to the middle east with the appropriate tidal and weather conditions and also because it was Dhirubhai’ssasural, i.e. KokilabenAmabni’s hometown. The refinery was built in 36 months – a record time as usually refineries take 8-10 years to make.At one point they had 1,20,000 employees working to get the plant ready. It has 3500 employees now andthe average of employees is 35. The Reliance Group, founded by Dhirubhai H. Ambaniis the most energy efficient refinery in the world.There are 2 refineries in the plant.DTA (Domestic Tariff Area) and SEZ (Special Economic zone).2% of the worlds refining capacity is created in Jamnagar. It is spread across 30000 acres. The SEZ exports their entire production, however in the DTA only 40% is exported. Even though, 85million barrels a day is the global refining capacity, the Jamnagar refinery alone creates 1.3 mill barrels a day. Until Reliance refinery came about, the largest refinery in India was that of IPCL which created 300000 tonnes ayear. That’s the size of 1 crude parcel that arrives a day at Reliance today.Reliance is only Indian private sector Company in Fortune Global 500. Three primarily fuels in the world are crude, gas and coal. The Jamnagar refinery takes crude from other countries and refines it to create petrol, diesel, jet fuel and liquid petroleum gas. Crude is procured from Middle East, Venezuela, Sudan and Mexico.After processing the crude from Reliance, it is exported back to the world. The cost per barrel is 30 dollars cheaper than other manufacturers. The sweetest crude is from the Middle East and the heavier and sour crude(more of sulphur) is cheaper and harder to process. At the Refinery the distilling process has the lightest carbons at the top and the heaviest at the bottom and that is how they are divided to create different end products:

1 Lightest part-Carbons 1 and 2 are fuel gas.
2 Carbons 3 and 4-Lpg.C3 processed to create propylene polymer.
3 Carbons5-9-petrol.
4 Carbons11-14-Kerosene and jet fuel.
5 Carbons 15+-Diesel.
6 Petroleum coal-coal that contains high sulphur.

The interesting facts about Jamnagar, is that they have done a lot to change the eco system. There used to be 300mm of rainwater earlier but now with all the plantations and orchard farming practices, they’ve done it has increased to 1600mm of rainfall.They have also established Asia’s largest mango orchard with 135000 mango trees and the mangoes from here are sold in Harrods in London. The stay and the tour was very well and timely organized. The staff had endless patience to answer questions, tthey served us delicious food,showed us around the state-of-the-art refinery and the scale of the operations and the impeccable scheduling of our day that really made this experience special. The most touching return gift- the photo album- will ensure this wonderful experience is permanently etched in our memory. After such a great trip all our members are Reliance evangelist spreading the true vision mission of the company to all.It was not only an educational but also an eye-opening trip for all YFLO members, and also once in a lifetime chance to see this magnificent place.