PSU refiners to spend Rs 4,478 cr on upgrade

As part of fuel quality upgrade project, the capacity of Mumbai refinery of Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd will be enhanced to 7.9 million tonne from existing 5.5 million tonne, he said in written reply to a question in Lok Sabha.

The upgrade will cost Rs 1,850 crore.

Besides, Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd is spending Rs 390 crore on revamping its diesel/naphtha hydro-desulphurisation units, while Indian Oil is investing Rs 372 crore in petrol quality upgrade project at its Guwahati refinery.

Bongaigaon Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd is investing Rs 1,431.91 crore in diesel hydrotreatment and Numaligarh Refinery Ltd another Rs 434.94 crore in diesel quality upgrade, he said.

He, however, did not give the timeframe for the investments.

To a separate question, Patel said Indian Oil earned a gross refinery margin of $8.54 a barrel in 2007-08 against $4.19 a barrel earned in 2006-07. It earned a net refinery margin of $5.64 per barrel.

Refinery margin is the earning a company makes on processing a barrel of crude oil.

Of the total increase of $4.35 per barrel in 2007-08, an increase of $0.83 is attributable to improvement and efficiency in working of the refineries.

Patel said 39.33 million tonne of petroleum products worth Rs 1,06,999 crore was exported in 2007-08, as against 33.6 million tonne valuing Rs 81,094 crore in the previous fiscal.