Other projects tied to IOC refinery plan

India's state-owned Indian Oil Corp. (IOC) has tied a number of infrastructure projects to its plan to hike capacity of its Haldia refinery to 150,000 b/d from the current 62,000 b/d.

April 13, 1998

2 min read

India's state-owned Indian Oil Corp. (IOC) has tied a number of infrastructure projects to its plan to hike capacity of its Haldia refinery to 150,000 b/d from the current 62,000 b/d.

Distillation capacity at the refinery is to increase to 90,000 b/d by 2000 and to 150,000 b/d by 2002. To handle rising crude import volumes to accommodate that increased capacity, IOC also plans to add a fourth oil terminal at Haldia on a build, own, and operate basis, either on its own or through partnership with other companies, likely in the private sector. Cost is pegged at 500 million rupees. In addition, with the resulting increased yield at Haldia, IOC plans to lay a 500-km refined products pipeline from Haldia to Barauni, at a cost of about 9.5 billion rupees and with a planned start-up in mid-1999. And IOC is considering installing a 300-MW naphtha-based power plant at Haldia.

In view of the expected increase in crude traffic at Haldia, the Calcutta Port Trust (CPT), within whose jurisdiction Haldia falls, plans to add a third oil terminal at Calcutta at a cost of 430 million rupees. To ensure better navigability on the River Hooghly to Haldia, CPT has also embarked on a massive, 2.8 billion-rupee dredging program with Dutch dredging corporation HAM. CPT now allows Suezmax-class tankers to come up only as far as the Sagar anchorage, from where crude must be lightered into smaller vessels for unloading at Haldia. This will reduce transportation costs for IOC, which is using only Suezmax tankers to import its crude.