Numaligarh refinery plans capacity expansion

The Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) is now pursuing a proposal of refinery expansion from 3 to 9 million metric tonnes (MMT) at an estimated cost of Rs.16,600 crore, sourcing incremental crude through imports.

NRL Chairman S. Varadarajan said this Friday while presiding over the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the company and added that the imported crude is envisaged to be transported from an eastern port to Numaligarh through a new pipeline.

The move is undertaken because the Assam-based refinery is facing the dual challenge of sub-economic refining capacity and declining trend in domestic crude oil supplies from northeastern oil fields.

The company, which commenced commercial production in October 2000, had already taken up specific initiatives to penetrate the markets of neighbouring countries during the last year and added that an agreement has also been signed with an oil company in Nepal for maiden export of Motor Spirit (MS) and High Speed Diesel (HSD) to that country.

"The company is also actively pursuing the project to lay a 135 km product pipeline from its terminal at Siliguri to Parbatipur in Bangladesh to facilitate sustained export of MS and HSD," he said.

NRL has completed 14 years of successful operation with sustained profitability.

During the financial year 2013-14, NRL achieved a sales turnover of Rs.9,872 crore, recording a growth of 13 percent and indicating that the company had increased its net profit by 157 percent to Rs.371 crore.