India’s state of Odisha will implement oil and gas projects within the next 5 years that amount to about 1 trillion rupees ($16.4 billion) in investments, positioning the state to become the energy gateway for eastern India, according to the country’s Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.
These investments will be allocated to multiple projects already under way in the state in the areas of petrochemicals, oil-and-gas pipelines, LNG and LPG terminals, as well as strategic oil reserves, said India’s Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Shri Dharmendra Pradhan in an Sept. 12 release following a meeting with meeting with Shri Naveen Patnaik, Odisha’s chief minister.
The purpose of the meeting was to seek the cooperation of Odisha’s state government in facilitating land acquisition, environmental clearances, and other necessary statutory approvals to ensure the smooth implementation of the upcoming projects, the ministry said.
The total 5-year investment into state projects includes 34,000 rupees ($5.5 billion) that already have been invested into Indian Oil Corp. Ltd’s (IOC) 15 million-tonnes/year refinery at Paradip (OGJ Online, Nov. 16, 2011), which is now scheduled to be commissioned by early 2015, according to Pradhan.
Pradhan also added that Odisha will be one of the few Indian states that will have gas supplies from three sources, which include imported LNG, domestic natural gas, and coal bed methane.
Configured to process heavy and high-sulfur crude oil and to produce Euro 5-standard fuels, the Paradip refinery previously was scheduled for commissioning in November 2013 (OGJ Online, Mar. 13, 2013).
In August, Indian Oil Corp. Ltd. (IOC) told investors it expected to complete commissioning activities at Paradip by December (OGJ Online, Aug. 14, 2014).
