IOCL Paradeep refinery to go on stream in early 2015

Country's largest strategic oil reserve facility at Chandikhol

The 15 million tonne oil refinery of Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL) at Paradeep running behind schedule, is gearing up for commissioning by early 2015.

“The IOCL refinery at Paradeep, the largest in the public sector, is nearing completion. The refinery would be commissioned by early 2015,” Union minister for petroleum & natural gas Dharmendra Pradhan said here.

He said, Rs 34,000 crore has already been invested on the IOCL refinery.

IOCL had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the state government in February 2004 to set up a 15 million tonne refinery along with a petrochemical complex at Paradeep envisaging a total investment of Rs 60,000 crore.

While IOCL went ahead with its refinery project, it had kept in abeyance the petrochemical complex, citing financial constraints.

Asked on the petrochemical complex, Pradhan said, “The polypropylene unit of the petrochemical chemical complex would be inaugurated next month.”

The polypropylene unit would cost Rs 3,150 crore. Earlier, Pradhan met chief minister Naveen Patnaik and reviewed the status of IOCL refinery and the upcoming PCPIR (petroleum, chemicals and petrochemicals investment region) hub. The PCPIR is planned across 284 sq km in Kendrapara and Jagatsinghpur districts and is expected to attract investments to the tune of Rs 2.74 lakh crore.

“At the review meeting, we reiterated our demand for starting the petrochemical complex. Unless the petrochemical complex comes up, investments to the PCPIR hub will suffer. We have also urged IOCL to pick up equity in the plastic park being developed by Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Idco),” said state industries minister Debi Prasad Mishra.Chief minister Naveen Patnaik said, “We reviewed the status of IOCL refinery and other projects with the Union minister of petroleum & natural gas and his team. We requested the Centre to take steps for value addition so that it creates more employment and revenue for the state.”

Meanwhile, the ministry of petroleum & natural gas has announced an investment of Rs 3,800 crore to develop the biggest strategic petroleum reserve in the country in Odisha.

“The strategic petroleum reserve will come up at Chandikhole. We have requested the state government to allot 400 acres. The reserve will have a storage capacity of 3.7 million tonne. The reserve will help meet the country's fuel need in time of crisis,” Pradhan said.

Presently, there are three strategic oil reserves in the country — Vizag (Andhra Pradesh) and Manmgalore and Padur, both in Karnataka. Four more oil reserves have been proposed at Bikaner (Rajasthan), Rajkot (Gujarat), Padur (Karnataka) and Chandikhole (Odisha).