Public-sector refining firms Indian Oil Corp. Ltd. (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd. (BPC), and Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd. (HPC) have formed a consortium to pursue a previously announced plan to jointly develop a grassroots 60 million-tonne/year integrated refining and petrochemical complex in India’s Maharashtra state (OGJ Online, Jan. 29, 2016).
The companies signed a memorandum of understanding on Dec. 7 to carry out preliminary activities for setting up the planned megarefinery as a joint-venture company, the companies said in filings to India’s BSE Ltd. and National Stock Exchange of India Ltd.
Details regarding the equity structure and financing for the proposed project have yet to be directly disclosed by the partners.
IOC, BPC, and HPC previously enlisted Engineers India Ltd. to carry out a detailed feasibility study for the complex, with the site selection for the project already under way in consultation with the government of Maharashtra (OGJ Online, Apr. 26, 2016).
To be built in two phases, the complex would produce gasoline, diesel, LPG, and jet fuel, as well as other feedstock for Maharashtra’s petrochemical industry.
Phase 1 of the refinery would include a crude processing capacity of 40 million tpy, with an additional 20 million tpy of capacity to be commissioned following completion of Phase 2.
Implementation for the project likely would be 7 years following acquisition of a land site, India’s Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Shri Dharmendra Pradhan said in April.
If realized, the state-owned Maharashtra complex would displace the 33 million-tpy refinery operated by privately owned Reliance Industries Ltd. at its two-refinery, 60 million-tpy Jamnagar manufacturing complex to become India’s largest refinery.
Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].
