29-04-2012

Prime Minister dedicates Guru Gobind Singh Refinery to the Nation

The Honourable Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh, dedicated the Guru Gobind Singh Refinery at Bathinda in Punjab to the nation today. Present on the occasion were His Excellency, Governor of Punjab, Shri Shivraj Patil, Honourable Chief Minister of Punjab, Shri Parkash Singh Badal, Honourable Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Shri Jaipal Reddy, Honourable Minister of State for Petroleum & Natural Gas & Corporate Affairs, Shri R.P.N.Singh, Honourable Deputy Chief Minister of Punjab, Shri Sukhbhir Singh Badal, Honourable Minister of State for Planning, Science & Technology & Earth Sciences, Dr. Ashwani Kumar, Honourable Honorable Minister, Local Government, Medical Education & Research, Punjab, Shri Chuni Lal Bhagat, Honourable Member of Parliament, Punjab, Smt. Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Member of Legislative Assembly, Punjab, Shri. Jeetmohinder Singh Sidhu, a host of other political, district administrative officials and corporate delegates.

The Hon’ble Prime Minister and other distinguished guests were welcomed by Mr. Subir Roy Choudhury, Chairman, HPCL-Mittal Energy Limited (HMEL), Mr. Lakshmi N. Mittal, Chairman and CEO, Arcelor Mittal, Mr. Sudhir Maheswari, Director HMEL, Mr. Prabh Das, MD & CEO, HMEL and other officials of the company.

The 9 Million Metric Tons per annum Guru Gobind Singh Refinery (GGSR) at Phullokari, Bathinda built at a cost of about USD 4 billion was recently commissioned. The state-of-the-art refinery is an energy efficient, environmental friendly, high distillate yielding complex, comprising of the following:-
- Single Point Mooring seven kilometres in the sea at Mundra, Gujarat
- Crude Oil Terminal at Mundra
- Cross country pipeline of about 1017 km from Mundra to Bathinda connecting various intermediate pumping stations
- Captive Power Plant of gross capacity 165 MW capacity and
- Petrochemical unit producing Polypropylene

The Government had approved the Joint Venture in July 2007. Work on construction of refinery started thereafter in early 2008. The refinery began refining crude oil in August 2011 and recently achieved commissioning of the entire project. HMEL achieved the first liquid sales in December 2011 with dispatch of kerosene and the first solid sales in February 2012 with sale of petroleum coke.

The Prime Minister, Shri Manmohan Singh dedicated the refinery to the nation by unveiling a plaque on the occasion that was attended by a large gathering of local people from the surrounding villages.
The project has been constructed largely on conventional basis. Engineers India Limited was the Project Management Consultant. The project was financed by a consortium of Indian banks led by State Bank of India.

HMEL's Bhatinda refinery will be the 24th refinery in the country. This refinery will enhance India's refining capacity, taking it close to 202 million tonnes per annum or more than 4 million barrels a day. GGSR will help meet fuel demand in the northern region of India.