Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) is India’s largest single-location public-sector refinery - a crude-oil processing giant on the Karnataka coast that turns a global basket of 95 different crudes into transport fuels, plastics, and industrial chemicals. Born to address India’s refining shortfall and later merged with ONGC’s aromatic-chemicals complex, it has evolved from a “fuels only” plant into an integrated fuels-and-petrochemicals operation. The recurring logic is to squeeze more value from every barrel by running the plant flat out, choosing the shortest thermodynamic pathway, and steadily shifting output from bulk fuels toward higher-margin petrochemicals. # Business segments Two engines at different stages - a high-complexity refining cash cow and an integrated petrochemical platform built on its side - with a third, early-stage sustainable-fuels bet being constructed inside the refinery fence. ## 1. Crude oil refining: the cash engine that funds everything else **A coastal, three-train refinery that runs above nameplate capacity on cheap, heavy crudes and sells fuels into both domestic institutions and export markets.** - **Three independent crude trains** - unlike any other Indian refinery, MRPL has three separate processing trains, which lets it switch between 95 different crude grades (from 20 API to 45 API) without shutting down, at the cost of slightly higher fuel consumption. - **Cheaper, dirtier crude diet** - the refinery is built to handle heavy and sour (high-sulphur) crudes that trade at a discount; Russian grades made up 30-40% of the basket recently, bought on a delivered basis so the price is locked in at the port, with discounts ranging from half a dollar to about four dollars a barrel. - **Coastal location is a freight advantage** - sitting on the west coast shortens the voyage from Middle Eastern suppliers, and a Single Point Mooring lets it receive crude in Very Large Crude Carriers, cutting shipping costs per barrel. - **Runs above nameplate** - the 18.4 million-tonne-per-year plant processed 18.18 million tonnes in FY25, and secondary units like the Petrochemical Fluidized Catalytic Cracker and the Delayed Coker Unit run beyond their design numbers, which spreads fixed costs over more barrels. - **Water independence solved** - a desalination plant (expandable to 70 million litres per day) plus recycled municipal sewage water mean the refinery no longer faces summer shutdowns from river-water shortages, a problem that once constrained throughput. ## 2. Petrochemicals and aromatics: the margin-upgrade layer **An aromatic complex bolted onto the refinery that takes naphtha streams and turns them into paraxylene, benzene, toluene, and polypropylene - shifting the product slate from bulk fuels toward higher-value chemicals.** - **Asia’s largest single-stream aromatics unit** - the complex, absorbed from ONGC in 2021, can produce 914,000 tonnes of paraxylene and 283,000 tonnes of benzene a year, processing naphtha piped directly from the refinery next door. - **Switches output with market spreads** - the complex can flip between making paraxylene/benzene and making reformate (a gasoline blendstock), depending on which margin is better at the time, so it is never locked into a loss-making product. - **Polypropylene at more than 100% utilisation** - the 440,000-tonne-per-year polypropylene unit consistently exceeds its nameplate capacity, and MRPL has introduced niche grades like cast polypropylene film for packaging, sold under the MANGPOL brand with a leadership position in South India. - **Toluene for the domestic shortfall** - India consumes about 650,000 tonnes of toluene a year but produces only about 160,000 tonnes; MRPL started making 40,000 tonnes annually in January 2025, aimed at pharmaceuticals, paints, and defence, saving roughly $3 million in imports. - **Pharma-ingredient pilot underway** - a pilot plant for Isobutyl Benzene (the building block for ibuprofen) uses process technology MRPL owns outright, developed with CSIR-NCL, and was nearing mechanical completion in late September/early October 2025. ## 3. Sustainable fuels: the early-stage green option **A bio-aviation-fuel plant under construction inside the refinery, plus a small green-hydrogen unit, both designed to meet coming mandates using existing refinery infrastructure.** - **First-mover on bio-ATF in India** - a Rs. 364-crore plant targeting 20 kilolitres per day of sustainable aviation fuel will use vegetable oil and used cooking oil as feedstock, built with indigenous technology. - **Compliance-ready for 2027** - the plant is timed to meet the CORSIA international aviation scheme, which requires 1% blended sustainable fuel from 2027, and MRPL has also completed design work to co-process bio-feed in an existing refinery unit. - **Green hydrogen for in-house use** - a board-approved Rs. 50-crore project will produce green hydrogen for the refinery’s own processes, rather than for sale, lowering the carbon footprint of the fuels it makes. # Group structure and partners **A government-controlled subsidiary of ONGC, with a 50:50 aviation-fuel joint venture with Shell and a growing stake in the special economic zone that houses its aromatic complex.** - **ONGC is the parent and the chairman** - MRPL is a Schedule ‘A’ Miniratna CPSE under the Ministry of Petroleum, and its chairman is also the chairman of ONGC; the board includes ONGC nominees and independent directors appointed by the government. - **Shell MRPL Aviation** - a 50:50 joint venture with Shell Gas BV that supplies jet fuel to domestic and international airlines at several South Indian airports and contracts for Indian carriers’ overseas fuel needs. - **Mangalore SEZ stake raised** - in March 2024, MRPL bought shares from IL&FS to lift its equity in the 1,607-acre special economic zone from under 1% to nearly 28%; the zone already hosts MRPL’s aromatic complex and provides shared utilities like water, power, and a marine outfall. - **Tripartite MoU with Azerbaijan** - MRPL, ONGC, and SOCAR signed a non-binding cooperation agreement in February 2025 to explore mutual supply and trade of crude oil, LNG, and petroleum products. - **New petrochemicals marketing JV** - in April 2026, MRPL committed Rs. 12.5 crore for a 25% stake in a joint venture with ONGC and OPaL that will pool the group’s petrochemical marketing to improve pricing, logistics, and grade optimisation.