L&T Delivers Feed-in at World’s first LC-Max Residue Upgradation Facility at Visakh Refinery

Mumbai: L&T’s Hydrocarbon Onshore business vertical (L&T Onshore) has achieved a major milestone by achieving the Feed-in of the world’s first LC-Max Residue Upgradation Facility (RUF) at Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd’s (HPCL) Visakh Refinery in Andhra Pradesh. The facility has a built-in capacity of 3.55 million metric tonnes per annum (MMTPA).

The project has been successfully commissioned, with the unit now receiving actual feedstock — vacuum residue from the existing refinery and operating to generate high-value products. The milestone was achieved in the presence of senior representatives from HPCL, the licensor CLG, and the project management consultant EIL, marking a defining moment for India’s refining and energy sector.

The RUF project, executed by L&T on EPC turnkey basis, is the most complex process unit of HPCL’s Visakh Refinery Modernisation Project, a key initiative under the National Energy Self-Reliance Programme to extract highest value from the residue stream.

This advanced facility produces fuel that meets stringent BS-VI emission standards and significantly enhances the value derived from domestic crude oil refining. It also incorporates several first-of-its-kind technologies in Indian refineries, including Ebullating pumps, Grayloc flanges, Pressure Let-down Stations and Pitch Solidification and Handling Units.

Commenting on the occasion, L&T’s Deputy Managing Director and President, Mr Subramanian Sarma, said: “With the commissioning of the world’s first LC-Max Residue Upgradation Facility, delivered with innovation and precision, L&T has reaffirmed its position as a leader in executing complex, large-scale projects that set new benchmarks in safety, quality and technological advancement”.

The execution journey was marked by formidable challenges, including critical phases coinciding with the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, global supply chain disruptions, geopolitical tensions and severe constructability constraints within an operating brownfield refinery on a compact plot in the heart of Vizag city.

To overcome these constraints, L&T adopted advanced construction methods and maximised off-site works. More than half of the structural and piping scope was modularised into 135 plug-and-play modules, some measuring up to 35 metres in length and weighing between 100 and 700 metric tonnes, fabricated at L&T’s state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities across India.

The scale of construction was immense, involving the installation of over 750 equipment items, including 230 over-dimensional consignments transported across Vizag, and large volume of piping and cabling.

Similarly, over 50 per cent of the civil construction, including all three substation buildings, was executed in precast mode — a first in any Indian refinery project.

L&T executed the project with exemplary safety performance, registering 58 million safe workhours while adhering to the highest global quality benchmarks. This accomplishment reinforces L&T’s engineering excellence and its ability to deliver highly complex projects under the most challenging conditions.