04-07-2016

India's biggest oil refinery to cost $30B

India’s biggest oil refinery that state-run Indian Oil Corporation Ltd, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd and Engineers India Limited, plan to set up on the west coast will cost $30 billion or Rs.2000 billion, a senior official said. “The 60 million tons a year refinery and a mega petrochemical complex will be set up in two phases. “Phase-1 will be 40 million tons together with an aromatic complex, naphtha cracker and polymer complex,” Sanjiv Singh, director (Refineries), IOC, told PTI in an interview.

Phase-1 will cost Rs.1200 - 1500 billion and will come up in 5-6 years from the date of land acquisition, he said. “The entire refinery will include three crude units of 20 million tons each—first of these will be part of phase-1. “The mega complex will require 12,000-15,000 acres of land and two-three sites on the coast of Maharashtra are being explored,” he said. The second phase will cost Rs.500 - 600 billion, he added. IOC has been looking at west coast for a refinery as catering to customers in West and South was difficult with its refineries mostly in the North.

HPCL and BPCL have also been looking at a bigger refinery because of constraints they face at their Mumbai units. “The refinery will produce petrol, diesel, LPG, ATF and feedstock for petrochemical plants in plastic, chemical and textile industries in Maharashtra,” he said. Fifteen million tons a year is the biggest refinery any public sector unit has set up in one stage. IOC recently started its 15 million tons unit at Paradip in Odisha. Reliance Industries holds the distinction of building the biggest refinery in India till now. It built its first refinery at Jamnagar in Gujarat with a capacity of 27 million tons, which was subsequently expanded to 33 million tons. It has built another unit adjacent to it for exports, with a capacity of 29 million tons.

The refinery being planned by the state-owned firms will be bigger than that. The phase-1 itself will be bigger than any one single unit. It will also be accompanied by a petrochemical complex.

Being on the west coast will provide the unit a natural advantage of easily sourcing crude oil from the Middle-East, Africa and South America, Singh said, adding east coast was not being considered as shipping crude oil to east coast will add at least $1 per barrel to cost.

Also, moving products to consumption heartland from west will not be difficult. India has a refining capacity of 232.066 million tons, which exceeded the demand of 183. 5 MT in 2015-16 fiscal.

According to International Energy Agency (IEA), this demand is expected to reach 458 MT by 2040. IOC has six refineries with a total capacity of 54.20 million tons. It also has subsidiary refineries with 11.50 million tons capacity. Paradip has taken its refining capacity to 80.7 million tons.

(Source: PTI)