Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. has signed a memorandum of understanding with Saudi Aramco and a consortium of public-sector refining firms Indian Oil Corp. Ltd. (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd. (BPCL), and Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd. (HPCL) to jointly develop and build Ratnagiri Refinery & Petrochemicals Ltd.’s (RRPCL) proposed grassroots 60 million-tonne/year integrated refining and petrochemical complex at Ratnagiri in Maharashtra state on India’s west coast (OGJ Online, Jan. 29, 2016).
Signed on June 25, the MOU outlines ADNOC’s participation alongside Aramco as an overseas strategic partner in the planned $44-billion RRPCL megarefinery, in which ADNOC and Aramco will jointly hold 50% interest, with IOC, BPCL, and HPCL holding the remaining 50% interest, ADNOC and the government of India said in separate releases.
ADNOC’s participation in the project comes as part of the company’s previously announced $45-billion program to become a global downstream leader under a new combined model of strategic partnerships and investments, ADNOC said (OGJ Online, May 25, 2018; May 14, 2018).
The addition of ADNOC as a partner follows Aramco’s signing of an MOU to participate with IOC, BPCL, and HPCL in joint construction, ownership, control, management, and operation of the project in April, at which time Aramco said it remained open to including an additional strategic partner (OGJ Online, Apr. 11, 2018).
With signing of this latest MOU now completed, the parties will jointly execute Engineer India Ltd.’s (EIL) recently completed prefeasibility study for development of the complex, including basic technical and overall configuration of the project, the partners said.
While unidentified preliminary project activities have been initiated and a demand-supply market study for petrochemicals by IHS Markit has been completed, the parties said they also soon will undertake a further configuration study, which in turn will lead to execution of a detailed feasibility study for the project as well as a final investment decision.
A timeframe for the detailed feasibility study and FID were not disclosed.
Megacomplex
Previously planned for construction in two phases over a period of 7 years, the megacomplex was to include an initial phase with a crude processing capacity of 40 million tpy to be followed by second phase that would expand capacity by another 20 million tpy to process a blend of two crudes within a gravity range of 27-30° API, according to documents posted to India’s Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change (EFCC) web site (OGJ Online, Dec. 9, 2016; Apr. 26, 2016).
The complex also will have flexibility to process opportunity crudes, including waxy and high-tan grades as well as condensates, according to EFCC documents.
Alongside producing a wide range of refined petroleum products—including gasoline and diesel that comply with BS VI-grade (equivalent to Euro 6-quality) norms—the refinery also will provide feedstock for an integrated petrochemicals complex that will be able to produce about 18 million tpy of petrochemical products, the Indian government said.
Once completed, the 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].
