BORL to expand capacity of Bina refinery

The Madhya Pradesh government today said the Bharat Oman Refinery Limited (BORL) had decided to expand the capacity of the much-awaited Bina refinery from the existing 6 million metric tonne per annum (MMTPA) to 9-12 MMPTA.

The government today decided to allow the BORL to use naphtha so that downstream projects near the refinery could take shape. The BORL is expected to churn out approximately 2.40 million tonne of low aromatic naphtha as a by-product.

“We have been informed that the Bharat Oman (BORL) board has decided to expand the capacity of the refinery, which is under construction, from the existing 6 MMTPA to 9-12 mmtpa, and hence the cabinet has decided to allow them to trade the naphtha. We had discussed with various companies, consultants and experts but naphtha fed power plant or an SME cluster is not viable,” Kailash Vijayavergiya, industry minister told BS.

So far the MP government was looking for setting up an SME-based complex near Bina refinery, which is being constructed at Agasod village in Bina (district Sagar) by selling low aromatic naphtha. After receiving lukewarm response from fertiliser and power companies, the government also tried to explore possibility to set up a power plant. After a presentation from a Mumbai-based consultant Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India Pvt Ltd, the government came to the conclusion that naphtha-based power plant will produce a costly power at Rs 12.82 per unit against the levelised coal-based power tariff of Rs 2.50 per unit. “We explored possibilities of both, a power plant and an SME complex but none of them seemed economically viable,” the minister said.

The department of energy also floated tenders to receive interests from various power companies to sell 2.40 million tonnes of naphtha and state agency MP Trade and Industries Facilitation Corporation also wrote letters to as many as 24 fertiliser companies, but received hardly any response.