Hindustan revives plan for new South India refining complex
By SAURABH CHATURVEDI
NEW DELHI -- India's Hindustan Petroleum has revived a plan to build an estimated 500 billion rupees ($8.98 billion) refinery and petrochemical complex at Visakhapattanam in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.
The move is part of the state-run company's plan to ramp up its business to meet rising demand from the energy hungry nation.
Hindustan is in talks with GAIL (India) Ltd. and plans to tie up with foreign companies as well as local ones, Subir Roy Choudhury, its chairman told reporters. The proposed project has a capacity of around 15 million tpy, or about 300,000 bpd.
The project was earlier planned by a five-way alliance of HPCL, Mittal Energy Investments, Total S.A., gas utility GAIL (India) Ltd. and Oil India Ltd., for an export-oriented refinery. It was later put on hold in 2010 as the economy slowed.
Mr. Roy Choudhury said the company anticipates rising demand for fuel products in India and has planned to raise overall refining capacity to 42 million tons, or 843,450 bpd, by 2020.
Hindustan Petroleum currently has two refineries -- an 8.3 million tpy or about 166,000 bpd refinery in Visakhapatnam and a 6.5 million tpy or 130,000 bpd refinery in Mumbai.
It also runs a 9 million tons or about 180,700 bpd refinery at Bhatinda in northern Punjab state in a joint venture with Singapore-based Mittal Energy, led-by steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal.
Dow Jones Newswires
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