The Hindu : Business : Refining capacity set for big rise

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, May 03, 2007
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Business

Refining capacity set for big rise

Sujay Mehdudia

XI Plan target for petroproducts 235 mt

NEW DELHI: With a view to ensuring energy security for the nation and earning foreign exchange, the Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry has drawn up an ambitious plan to substantially expand the capacity of the refineries in the country from 148 million tonnes at present to 235 million tonnes by 2011-12.

With petroleum emerging as one of the highest foreign exchange earners in the last fiscal, the Ministry is all set to go pro-active on raising the internal refining capacity to emerge as a `petroleum hub' for the Asia-Pacific region.

Under this plan, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has drawn up a plan to set up a new 15-million tonne refinery-cum-petrochemicals complex at Ennore on the outskirts of Chennai in Tamil Nadu with an investment of around Rs. 25,000 crore.

The Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister, Murli Deora, who has been working on an aggressive strategy in this regard, has already taken up the matter of allotment of around 4,000 acres with the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, M. Karunanidhi, for setting up the complex.

Focus on exports

IOC plans to build the Ennore refinery, mainly catering to the export market, four years after it commissions its East Coast Paradip refinery in Orissa. "The 15-million tonne Paradip refinery is scheduled for commissioning in 2011 and the Ennore refinery will come up sometime in 2015-16,'' a Ministry official said. The Ennore complex would be set up in joint venture with Chennai Petroleum Corporation, an arm of IOC. It is understood that IOC wants to set up a naphtha cracker and aromatics complex at Ennore to utilise the products from the refinery. IOC has a total refining capacity of 60 million tonnes, which it plans to increase to 80 million tonnes by 2012 while pushing up revenues to $60 billion.

At present, the public sector has a refining capacity of 105.47 million tonnes and the private sector 43.50 million tonnes. Reliance Industries has a capacity of 33 million tonnes.

Essar Oil is the other private sector refiner with a capacity of 10.50 million tonnes. Reliance Petroleum is adding another 27 million tonnes capacity in Jamnagar.

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