Following projects have been envisioned to ensure improvement of existing plant.

Two stage unit at Lube-I refinery
The project has been planned to enhance the installed crude oil processing capacity from 12,050 Barrel per stream day (bpsd) to 17,000 bpsd and vacuum fractionation capacity from 5,200 bpsd to 6,600 bpsd. The project is in planning stage.

101-F-1 Air Pre-Heater Project
Installation of Air-Pre Heater at fuel refinery is an energy saving and environmental friendly project. Furthermore, Greenhouse gases emissions and carbon foot prints will be reduced by this project. Design package and Information to Bidders (ITB) documents for bidding are completed and the project is expected to be awarded during the year 2016-17.

Installation and Commissioning of used Diesel Generator of 8.2 MW
The energy demand of the company is expected to increase due to upcoming up-gradation projects. In order to meet the power requirement of the company it has been planned to procure used Diesel Generator of 8.2 MW capacity, having sound condition and maximum useful life at a feasible cost.

Water Demineralization Plant
It is planned to procure and install a water demineralization plant for reverse osmosis. This will help in overcoming the company’s water requirements by improving the quality of available water from Reverse Osmosis plants.

Distributed Control System of LUBE-1 Refinery
The Distributed Control System (DCS) is being procured, which is the latest available technology for easy, intuitive, and inter-operable mode to connect staff, processes, and production. With DCS, plant operation can be run in a much smarter way, with complete plant information on one screen. New system will reduce the maintenance duration with quick troubleshooting and provide improved reporting to monitor operations.

Waste Heat Recovery Boiler over DG Stack for 2TPH Steam Generation
It is planned to utilize the heat energy currently being vented to the atmosphere from the Diesel Generator. Considerable amount of heat can be utilized in the heat recovery system with the payback period of 2 years. Project has been awarded to the contractor and engineering work is in progress.

Topping Unit and Reformer Unit
Government of Pakistan has changed the specification of Motor Gasoline from 87 RON to 92 RON. Although refineries have been allowed to market 87 RON and 90 RON, an opportunity exists to improve the production of NRL to meet the market requirement. For this purpose, NRL is considering to install a Topping Unit and a Reformer Unit of larger capacity. The project is in initial phase for which feasibility study is in progress.

Deregulation The lube base oil (LBO), asphalt, BTX and specialty oils segment of NRL’s business is deregulated and operates in a free market environment.

The Government is committed to gradual deregulation of the petroleum fuel-refining sector. As a first step, it deregulated furnace oil and LPG by allowing refineries to fix prices on a competitive basis. Thereafter with effect from 1st July 2001, the petroleum industry was allowed to workout prices of fuel products through the Oil Companies’ Advisory Committee (OCAC) on a fortnightly basis by using a transparent pricing mechanism approved by the Government. The Government deregulated import of high-speed diesel (HSD) and therefore with effect from 1st September 2002 allowed OMCs to fix the final sale price on cost competitive basis.

Import parity pricing formula for fuel refineries was modified with effect from 1st July 2002. The main objective of modification in formula was to dispense with the minimum 10% rate of return requirement and provide incentive to oil Refineries to operate on self-financing basis without any subsidy from Government of Pakistan (GOP). Gradually, over the years, Tariff protection was removed from all the products and currently the same exists only on HSD, at a reduced level. Pricing of Regulated Fuel Products was handed over to Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) w.e.f. April 16, 2006.

As per Government directive, OGRA changed the price announcement frequency from Fortnightly basis to monthly basis w.e.f. February 01, 2009. Continuing on the path of deregulation of the petroleum fuel-refining sector, w.e.f. June 01, 2011, Government has allowed Refineries to fix and announce on monthly basis the Ex-refinery prices for Motor Spirit, Aviation Fuels and Light Diesel Oil at their own on competitive basis. The OGRA, however, still announces ex-Refinery Price for High Speed Diesel and Kerosene, on monthly basis.