New Delhi, May 30: State-run Indian Oil Corporation is unlikely to renew its current agreement with Reliance Industries for lifting 25 per cent of Jamnagar refinery product for sale through its retail chain, beyond March 2004. "Our refineries are currently under-utilised. We plan to operate them at full capacity from next year (when current product offtake agreement with RIL expires). With couple of refinery expansions being completed next year, we will not need RIL products. Shortfalls, if any, would be met through imports," highly placed company sources said. RIL, which presently does not have a retail chain of its own, sells 13.1 million tonnes of its products annually to state-run oil retailing firms - IOC, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum. While the contract with BPCL and HPCL ends on March 31, 2004, the agreement with IOC is extendable by five years (till 2009).
The Jamnagar refinery has a capacity of 27 million tonnes. Bureau Report