Indian Oil Corporation to invest Rs 70,000 crore to expand refining capacity

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NEW DELHI: Indian Oil Corp (IOC) will invest Rs 70,000 crore to raise its oil refining capacity by about a quarter by 2030 as it takes the lead to meet rising energy needs of the country.

IOC will expand its refining capacity to 116.55 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) by 2030 from the current 80.7 MTPA with an investment of about Rs 70,000 crore, a top company official said.

India's current refining capacity of 247.6 MTPA exceeds consumption but with demand growing at a compounded annual growth rate of 3.5-4 percent, it will need to add more capacity to meet the rising fuel needs.

While the Energy Information Agency of US projects India's demand to reach 434 MT by 2040 from 194 MT currently, IEA puts the number between 450 and 492 MT.

The oil ministry estimates fuel demand to rise to 335 MT by 2030 and has planned to raise the country's refining capacity to 415 MTPA by 2020 from the current 247.6 MTPA.

In 2040, the refining capacity is projected to rise to 439 MTPA.

The official said the investment planned by IOC also includes in upgradation of major units at existing refineries to help produce cleaner Euro-VI or BS-VI grade petrol and diesel by April 2020.

Besides, IOC plans to raise the capacity of its Panipat refinery in Haryana to 25 MTPA from current 15 MTPA while Koyali refinery in Gujarat would be expanded to 18 MTPA from 13.7 MTPA.

The recently-commissioned 15-MTPA Paradip refinery in Odisha will see a capacity addition of 5 MT while 3 MT will be added in IOC's Barauni refinery in Bihar, he said.

A 1.2-MTPA capacity addition is planned for Uttar Pradesh's Mathura refinery to take its capacity to 9.2 MTPA.

The official said IOC is also looking at adding a 9 MTPA refinery at its subsidiary Chennai Petroleum (CPCL).

Other state refiners to have planned a capacity addition to meet rising demand. Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL) is looking to ramp up capacity to 56 MTPA, from 36.5 MTPA currently, by adding 5 MT to its Kochi unit and ramping up the capacity of Bina refinery in Madhya Pradesh by 9 MT to 15 MTPA. Also, Numaligarh capacity will go up to 9 MTPA from 3 now.

Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) also plans to expand its Mumbai refinery to 9.5 MTPA from 7.5 MTPA and that of Vizag unit to 15 MTPA from 8.3 now.

It is also setting up a new 9 MTPA unit at Barmer in Rajasthan.

The official said IOC, BPCL and HPCL are together looking at putting up a new 60 MPTA refinery on the west coast in Maharahstra.