BPCL plans Rs 13k-cr refinery expansion

Aims to expand it to 9 mn tonnes from the current 3 mn tonnes

India’s second biggest state-run refiner Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) plans to spend about Rs 13,000 crore on expanding its Numaligarh refinery in Assam by 2017-18.      

BPCL plans to expand the Numaligarh refinery to ninemillion tonnes from the current three million tonnes,  Chairman and Managing Director S Varadarajan said.     

“We are still at the drawing-board stage for the expansion. We need tax concessions both from the central and the state governments to make the expansion economically viable,” he said.     

The refinery, which was conceived and designed to process locally available crude from North Eastern oilfields, has been operating at less than its capacity due to dwindling crude oil output in the region. BPCL now plans to process imported crude oil after expansion of the unit, he said.