Chennai Petro to complete Rs 3,110-cr project before 2015

The company also said that it is planning to complete establishment of a new crude oil pipeline for around Rs 257 cr in 18 months

The Chennai Petroleum Corporation Ltd (CPCL), a group company of Indian Oil Corporation, said that the company is expecting to complete its Rs 3,110-crore Resid Upgradation Project to complete by December 2015 and the works are in progress as per the schedule. The company also said that it is planning to complete establishment of a new crude oil pipeline for around Rs 257 crore in 18 months.?

?Speaking to the shareholders in the 48th Annual General Meeting, B Ashok, chairman of IOCL, said, "To increase the value addition by maximisation of distillates production, your company has embarked on setting up Resid Upgradation project, using the vaccum Residue as the feedstock available in the company."?

?The civil works are in progress and delivery of materials at project site will commence shortly, he said.?

?The company is also implementing a mounded bullet storage facility for LPG and Petrochemical products, as part of risk mitigation measures and in line with norms prescribed by the oil industry safety directorate, at an estimated cost of Rs 279 crore. The implementation of the project was started in April 2013 and is expected to be mechanically completed by the end of 2014.?

?The company has also received CRZ clearance for the proposed 42-inch new crude oil pipeline with enhanced safety features, as a replacement for the existing old crude oil pipeline, which will reduce pumping time and demurrage incidence. The estimated cost of the pipeline is Rs 257 crore and schedule time for completion is 18 months, he said.?

?The company has initiated measures to achieve improvement in both physical and financial performance, he said.?

?Speaking about the future outlook of CPCL, he said: "Various margin improvement measures in the areas of energy conservation and consequent reduction in Fuel and Loss, value added products and optimisation of crude mix. I am confident that with all these initiatives and support from IOCL, Corporation's bottom-line will further improve."?

?The company has successfully completed construction of one Naphtha Tank, one MS tank and one slop tank with a capacity of 10,000 KL each to increase the product and intermediates storage facilitates during the year. Projects on Fire Water Storage Tanks and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) absorption facility were also completed and commissioned.?

?He said that during the year 2013-14, petroleum products consumption in India witnessed only a marginal growth rate of 0.7% over the previous year, which is the lowest in the last decade, with the demand for petroleum products increasing to 158.2 million metric tonne from 157.1 MMT in 2012-13.?