Shirish Nadkarni
OGJ Correspondent
MUMBAI, Sept. 8 -- Chennai Petroleum Corp. Ltd. (CPCL), formerly known as Madras Refineries Ltd. and a subsidiary of India's state-owned refiner Indian Oil Corp. (IOC), has committed to invest more than $1 billion on various upgrading projects at its 130,660 (total) b/d refinery complex at Manali. The refineries produce fuel products, lubricants, and additives.
Chennai also has a preliminary feasibility study under way for a 15 million-tonne/year refinery-petrochemical complex near Ennore, 100 km from Chennai (Madras).
Planned Manali complex upgrade investments include a $647 million residue upgrade, and $61 million to expand Refinery I and Refinery III refining capacity to 11.2 million tonnes/year from 9.5 million tonnes/year.
Refinery III capacity will be increased to 4 million tonnes/year from 3 million tonnes/year at a cost of $29 million by September 2008. CPCL will expand Refinery I capacity to 3.5 million tonne/year from 2.8 million tonne/year at a cost of $32 million.
IOC Chairman and Managing director Sarthak Behuria, who also is CPCL chairman, said the high-conversion residue upgrade will increase the distillate yield and reduce fuel oil production. The project is scheduled for completion in 2010.
CPCL also will expend $359 million for the addition of diesel and naphtha hydrotreating units and $18 million for a wind power program.
Another investment calls for a 1.5 million-tonne/year diesel hydrotreating unit and a 150,000-tonne naphtha hydrotreating unit and isomerization unit to meet European fuel standards. These projects are slated for completion by Dec. 31, 2009.
CPCL also plans to enhance the polypropylene plant at Manali to produce other olefins.