State oil firms sign pact to build $40 billion refinery

State oil firms sign pact to build $40 billion refinery

IOC to own 50% stake, HPCL and BPCL to hold the rest

State-owned oil firms IOC, BPCL and HPCL on Wednesday signed an agreement to jointly set up the world’s largest refinery and petrochemical complex in Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra at a cost of $40 billion.

Indian Oil Corp. (IOC) will be the lead partner with 50% stake while Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd. (HPCL) and Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd. (BPCL) will take 25% stake each, IOC chairman Sanjiv Singh said.

The three oil refining and marketing companies signed the joint venture agreement on Wednesday.

Speaking on the occasion, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said though India is the world’s third largest energy consumer after U.S. and China, its per capita energy consumption is one-fourth of the world average.

“Domestic oil demand is likely to climb to 500 million tonnes by 2040. Against this, our domestic refining capacity currently is 230-235 million tonnes. We need to plan capacity addition to not just meet this demand but also of export market,” the Oil Minister said.

Brownfield expansion

Already, 55 million tonnes of brownfield refinery expansion has been finalised at existing refineries and a new 9 million tonnes unit is planned at Barmer in Rajasthan, Mr. Pradhan said.

He said the 60 million tonnes capacity refinery at Babulwadi, Taluka Rajapur in Ratnagiri District is being set up keeping in mind the future fuel demand and India’s export potential.The refinery will have an accompanying mega petrochemical plant, IOC’s Mr. Singh said.

https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-business/state-oil-firms-sign-pact-to-build-40-billion-refinery/article19051809.ece

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