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Kochi Refinery

crude oil refinery of Indian city of Kochi

Architectural plans, a scale model, maps and brass measuring instruments
Places and architectureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 7, 2026
Entity authorityQ6424868
Source-derived summary

Kochi Refinery Limited (KRL) is a crude oil refinery in the city of Kochi in Kerala, India. It is the largest public sector refinery in India with a production capacity of 15.5 million tonnes per year. Formerly known as Cochin Refineries Limited and later renamed as Kochi Refineries Limited, it was acquired by Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited in the year 2006. The refinery is situated at Ambalamugal, around 12 km (7.5 mi) east of the city centre.

History

Kochi Refinery started when Government of India, Phillips Petroleum Company of USA and Duncan Brothers & Company Limited of Calcutta signed an agreement for the construction of a petroleum refinery in south India, in Kochi, Kerala.

The company was formally registered, as Cochin Refineries Ltd (CRL), on 6 September 1963 at Kochi. Phillips Petroleum International Corporation was the prime contractors for the construction of the refinery. Construction work started in March 1964 and the first unit came on stream just after 29 months in September 1966. The Prime Minister of India Ms.Indira Gandhi inaugurated it on 23 September 1966.

In 2006, Kochi Refinery was acquired by the Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Kochi Refinery” is crude oil refinery of Indian city of Kochi. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Kochi, Refinery and crude, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewMost useful as a place-based finding aid connecting the present description to earlier jurisdictions, maps and built evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2006, 1963, 1964, 1966—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1963-01-01. For this dossier, Kochi, Refinery and crude is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “crude oil refinery of Indian city of Kochi” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6424868. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2006, 1963, 1964 and 1966.

Critical limits

Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.

Best used for
  • Historic place names
  • Jurisdictional context
  • Routes into maps and plans
Verify next

Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Kochi Refinery”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Kochi Refinery primary sources, Kochi Refinery archive and Kochi research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Kochi Refinery”?
  2. Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
  3. Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Kochi Refinery” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.