MOSCOW (MRC) -- Hindustan Petroleum Corp. has revived a plan to build a refinery-cum-petrochemical complex with an estimated investment of 500 billion rupees (USD8.98 billion) at Visakhapatnam in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, as per The Wall Street Journal.
The company is in talks with gas transporter GAIL (India) Ltd. and plans to tie up with foreign companies as well as local ones to set up the facility, Chairman Subir Roy Choudhury told reporters Tuesday.
The proposed refinery is expected to have a capacity of 15 million tonnes per annum, or about 300,000 barrels a day. It is part of the state-run company's plans to step up its operations to meet India's increasing energy demand.
The refinery was initially planned as a joint venture of Hindustan Petroleum, Mittal Energy Investments Pte., Total SA, GAIL and Oil India Ltd. The companies put the project on hold because of the economic slowdown.
Mr. Roy Choudhury said the company anticipates demand for fuel products to rise in India and has plans to increase its refining capacity to 42 million tonnes by 2020.
Hindustan Petroleum currently has two refineries - an 8.3-million-tonту refinery in Visakhapatnam and a 6.5-million-tonne facility in Mumbai. It also runs a 9.0-million-tonne refinery at Bhatinda in northern Punjab state in a joint venture with Mittal Energy Investment of steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal.
MRC