HPCL lines up Rs 3700 cr for Vizag Refinery

State-owned Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) is investing around Rs 3,700 crore in its Vizag Refinery to meet Euro norms and create additional facilities like setting up a single point mooring (SPM) berth at the Vizag port over the next two years.

HPCL has invested Rs 2,500 crore for the clean fuels project to manufacture Euro-III and IV grade petrol. The project will be commissioned shortly. The company has also spent another Rs 120 crore for setting up a 6,000-tonne mounded storage facility for LPG, which is likely to be commissioned in the next 2 months, at the refinery.

Addressing mediapersons here , P A B Raju, executive director, Vizag Refinery -HPCL, said the refinery was also setting up a diesel hydro treating plant at a cost of Rs 3,000 crore for de-sulphurisation of HSD (high speed diesel) to meet the Euro-IV requirement. The project would be ready by 2011 end.

This apart, a flue gas desulphurisation unit is coming up with an investment of Rs 100 crore. The project to be completed by early 2011 would bring down the emission level further.

The proposed SPM at the Vizag port would require an investment of Rs 600 crore. “With this SPM, we can bring 270,000 tonnes capacity very large crude carriers at the Vizag port. This will not only reduce the freight cost but also handling charges at the port by about 50 per cent,” he added.

The refinery achieved a crude oil throughput of over 9 million tonnes during the last fiscal. It processed about 20 different types of crude oil apart from the first parcel of Reliance crude oil from the K-G Basin during the period, Raju said.