Reliance to shut VGO unit in Apr-May: Report

India's top refiner, Reliance Industries, plans to shut a 100,000 barrels per day vacuum gas oil (VGO) hydrotreater for 15-20 days in April-May to change the catalyst, a trade source said on Monday. Reliance Industries, promoted by billionaire Mukesh Ambani operates the world's biggest refining complex at Jamnagar, with the capacity of processing 1.24 million bpd of crude. The VGO is one of two such units of the same capacity at Reliance's old 660,000 bpd refinery at Jamnagar in western Gujarat state. "This is a tentative plan and may change," the source, who is familiar with Reliance's refining complex, said. He said there would be no impact on throughput. "We will keep enough feedstock to process at the fluid catalytic cracking unit during the shutdown," the source said. A VGO hydrotreater removes sulphur from heavy feedstock to produce naphtha, jet fuel and LPG. A Reliance spokesman declined comment. The source said the duration of the shutdown might be shortened, depending on the nature of the job