Sources say that India's HPCL has issued fuel import tenders following disruptions at its Mumbai refinery.

Two sources familiar with this matter confirmed on Tuesday that Hindustan Petroleum, India, had issued two tenders to import transportation fuels in early November, after shutting down one of its processing plants due to contamination.

Vikas Kaushal, the chairman of HPCL, said that during the processing contaminated oil it acquired from Hindustan Oil Exploration Company, HPCL closed its gasoline producing continuous catalytic Reformer. HOECL stated in a press release that it would engage in discussions with HPCL to resolve the issue.

One source said that HPCL had requested 34,000 tonnes of gasoline and 65,000 tonnes of gasoil to be delivered between November 1 and 10, at Mundra port on the west coast of India.

The company didn't immediately respond to an inquiry for comment about the tenders.

Second source: The tenders that closed on Tuesday were issued because "operational problems" had arisen at the Mumbai refinery of the company.

HPCL stated in a Monday statement to the National Stock Exchange that the oil "was found to be causing operation issues, including corrosion in downstream unit, yielding suboptimal results and turning down production".

It added that "potential reasons" could be the high chloride and salt content of crude oil. (Reporting and editing by Thomas Derpinghaus, Jan Harvey and Nidhi verma)

(source: Reuters)