Indian Oil, BPCL, HPCL and EIL to construct refinery

According to Indian Oil Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, several Indian oil firms will invest INR1.5 billion (equivalent to US$22.085 million) in the construction of India's largest and most comprehensive refinery.

As reported by The Economic Times, Indian Oil Corp (IOC), one of Indian’s leading refiners, has planned a 60 million tpy oil refinery in Maharashtra along with Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL), Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) and Engineers India Ltd (EIL). IOC has been looking to construct a facility along the west coast in order to provide a better service to it’s customers in the west and south of the country, who have suffered in the past due to the predominantly northern placement of refineries. HPCL and BPCL have similarly been looking for the opportunity to expand due to the constraints at their Mumbai units.

While discussing the logistics of the proposed facility with Maharashtra Chief Minister, Devendra Fadnavis, Pradhan said, "The refinery will produce petrol, diesel, LPG, ATF and feedstock for petrochemical plants in plastic, chemical and textile industries in Maharashtra," He continued, "The Government of Maharashtra and the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas will closely work for early identification of land for the refinery and finalisation of the details of the project".

Reliance Industries currently owns and manages the largest refinery in India, at Jamnagar in Gujarat with a capacity of 27 million t, that was later upgraded to 33 million t in cohesion with the build of an adjacent unit with a capacity of 29 million t.

As reported by The Financial Express, the refinery, and accompanying petrochemical complex, currently in discussion would greatly surpass Reliance Industries, with the planned initial phase bigger than any unit, costing INR 2500 crore/million t and for the full 60 million t it will cost INR 1.5 lakh crore.

While on one hand the West coast placement of the refinery is a benefit for customers, on the other it provides an easy method of sourcing crude oil from the Middle-East and Africa, and simple transportation route for moving product into the ‘consumption heartland’.

IOC has six refineries with a total capacity of 54.2 million tonnes. It also has subsidiary refineries with 11.5 million tonnes capacity. Paradip has taken its refining capacity to 80.7 million tonnes.

Sources: The Economic Times, The Financial Express, NDTV Profit

Edited from various sources by Francesca Brindle

Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/refining/26012016/ioc-bpcl-hpcl-eil-invest-22-million-lakh-crore-25-oil-refinining-facility-2267/