HPCL to invest Rs 45000 crore by 2020 in refinery expansion, infra

New Delhi: State-owned Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) plans to invest Rs 45,000 crore by 2020 in expansion of its Mumbai and Visakhapatnam refineries as well as augmenting its marketing infrastructure.

While Rs 21,000 crore would be invested in refining capacity expansion, Rs 9,000 crore would be spent in marketing infrastructure till 2020. A total of Rs 14,000 crore would go into joint venture refinery projects, natural gas business and upstream oil exploration, the company said in an investor presentation.

HPCL will invest Rs 4,199 crore in expanding its Mumbai refinery capacity to 9.5 million tonnes per annum (MTPA)from current 6.5 MTPA.

It will invest another Rs 17,000 crore in expanding Visakhaptnam refinery capacity to 15 MTPA from 8.3 MTPA currently.

The investments would also help the company produce "products confirming to Euro V/VI" emission specification, HPCL said.

Another USD 350 million is planned to be invested in raising capacity of 9 MTPA Bhatinda refinery to 11.25 MTPA. "Additional volumes would cater to growth in demand in northern India," it said.

HPCL and steel baron Lakshmi N Mittal are equal partners in the Bhatinda refinery in Punjab. HPCL and Mittal Investment Sarl hold 48.94 per cent stake each in HPCL-Mittal ENergy Ltd while the balance is with financial institutions.

The company is also partnering Mumbai-based infrastructure major Shapoorji Pallonji to set up a 5 MTPA LNG import terminal at Chhara port in Gujarat. The project will cost Rs 5,411 crore and "financial closure for the project has been completed," it said.

HPCL holds 50 per cent stake in the project while SP Ports Pvt Ltd, a unit of Shapoorji Pallonji Group, holds the remaining.

HPCL is also looking at doubling renewable energy capacity to 100 MW.

HPCL has 13,561 petrol pumps across the country.

It is investing Rs 1,782 crore in laying new pipelines, fuel depots and LPG plants. It is building a 397 km Mangalore-Hassan-Mysore-Bengaluru LPG pipeline and 168 km Uran-Chakan LPG pipeline.

Jabalpur fuel depot in Madhya Pradesh and Loni terminal in Maharasthra are being revamped while new LPG plants at Solapur in Maharashtra, Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh, Karimnagar in Telangana and Panagarh in West Bengal are being set up.