Numaligarh refinery gets 200-acre land within Paradip port for oil terminal

Paradip Port Trust (PPT) has alloted 200 acres of land to Numaligarh Refinery Ltd (NRL) on long-term lease basis to set up a crude oil terminal within the port premises. The facility will enable NRL to import crude oil via the major port at Paradip to cater to its requirement post ramp up of its refinery from three million tonnes per annum (mtpa) to nine mtpa.

NRL has deposited Rs 20 crore with the PPT as initial land deposit. NRL is trebling its refinery's nameplate capacity at a cost of Rs 22,000 crore, billed as one of the highest investments in the North East.

In April 2017, NRL had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with PPT and Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL) for imports of crude oil through the major port.

The crude oil imports are meant for catering to NRL’s capacity expansion wherein it is augmenting capacity of its refinery at Numaligarh (Assam) to nine million tonne per annum, from three mtpa now.

Under NRL’s proposed refinery expansion project, a 28 inch diameter, 1400-km crude oil pipeline of one mtpa capacity will be laid for transporting six mtpa of imported crude oil from Paradip Port in Odisha to Numaligarh in Assam. The MoU provides for utilizing IOCL’s spare capacity of existing SPMs (Single Point Mooring) at Paradip. PPT will extend land space for installation of crude storage tanks, pump house and township at Paradip. This will lead to an estimated investment of Rs 1,000 crore in Odisha and generate direct and indirect employment.

NRL is a joint venture between Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL), Oil India Ltd and the Assam government.