IOC lines up Rs 40,000 crore to expand refining capacity beyond 100 MT
New Delhi   06-Jul-2016

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Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) will invest Rs. 40,000 crore to expand its refining capacity to over 100 million tonnes by 2022 as the nation's largest oil firm takes the lead to add capacity to meet India's rising energy needs.

“As we see, (fuel) demand is expected to grow at 3.5-4% CAGR and we need to build capacities to meet that requirement,” IOC director (refineries) Sanjiv Singh told PTI.

International Energy Agency's World Energy Outlook projects 4% CAGR growth in India's fuel demand to 348 mt by 2030, from 184 mt in 2015-16. BP projects demand to be 335 mt while EIA has pegged it at 294 mt, which translates into a CAGR of 3%. India has a refining capacity of 232.06 mt.

“All the projections clearly show that the demand will grow and unless we start investing now, we will lag,” he said.

IndianOil will expand its refining capacity to 104.55 mt by 2022 from the current 80.7 mt per annum with an investment of about Rs. 40,000 crore, he said.

It is looking to scale up its Koyali refinery in Gujarat to 18 mt from 13.7 mt while capacity of the Panipat refinery in Haryana will be raised by a quarter to 20.2 mt from the current 15 mt.

A 3-mtpa capacity addition each is planned for Uttar Pradesh's Mathura Refinery and Bihar's Barauni Refinery, which will take their capacity to 11 mt and 9 mt, respectively.

The recently-commissioned 15-mtpa Paradip refinery in Odisha will see a capacity addition of 5 mt while about 3 mt will be added in IOC's Digboi and Bongaigaon refineries in the North-East, he said.

Other state refiners too have planned capacity addition to meet rising demand. Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL) is looking to ramp up capacity to 53 mt, from 30.5 mt currently.

Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) also plans to expand its Mumbai refinery to 8.2 mt from 6.5 mt and that of Viz ag unit to 15 mt from 8.3 mt.

Featured in Hindustan Times on July 5, 2016.