Guj govt okays IOC's proposal to acquire land for expansion

The Gujarat government has approved a proposal of Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOC) Gujarat Refinery seeking acquisition of 75 acre land for its expansion projects, a top company executive said.
The expansion plans are for raising its crude refining process to 18 MMT per year from the existing 13.7 MMT per year, IOC Gujarat Refinery Executive Director S K Dhar Gupta said.
The refinery located at Koyali village on the outskirts of Vadodara city needs a total of 130 acre land for its expansion projects, of which 55 acre have been acquired, he said.
The proposal was lying before the state government for over past two years and was cleared recently.

The refinery authorities had sought clearance for purchasing the land needed for the expansion project vital for meeting the norms of government's Auto Fuel Vision Policy- 2025, he said.
Spread over 1,950 acre, the Gujarat refinery facility includes Asoj and Dumal terminal operations and five primary Atmospheric Distillations Units.

"We need 130 acre if we want to achieve the target of 18 MMT per year and we are confident on acquiring it. We have started holding talks with locals in the villages and their response is good and process is on to acquire the land," Dhar Gupta said.
"In order to maintain the growth trajectory, the Refining Capacity augmentation through brownfield expansion from refinery's current nameplate capacity of 13.7 MMT per year to 18 MMT per year is also under growth plan and will be executed considering BS-V compliance by 2019-20," he said.

The capacity expansion project will include new units like AVU (Atmospheric & Vacuum distillation Unit) of 9 MMTPA capacity along with few bottom up-gradation secondary units, he said, adding that the expansion will lead to improvement in distillate yield thereby enabling production of more value- added products from the refinery.