IOCL's Paradip refinery to start comm production by this year

The Centre today assured the Odisha government that Indian Oil Corporation's (IOCL) oil refinery at Paradip is likely to commence commercial production by the end of this year.
The assurance was given to Odisha government when state's industries minister Debi Prasad Mishra met Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan at New Delhi today.
"The Paradip refinery will be able to start commercial production by around December this year," Pradhan was quoted saying in a release issued by the industries department here.
Mishra had been to the national capital to attend a meeting convened by Pradhan. The meeting was attended by representatives of Odisha government, IOCL and officials of the Petroleum Ministry.

The state-run IOCL has been setting up the refinery since 2000 at Paradip and has faced various hurdles including slump in the oil market, land and labour problems, delay in commissioning of the captive power plant and protests over laying of water pipelines from Mahanadi to the plant site.
Initially mooted to be a 6-mtpa (million tonnes per annum) refinery at an estimated investment of Rs 8,300 crore, the capacity of the Paradip refinery was later enhanced to 15-mtpa with investment of Rs 29,000 crore. The company had earlier set March 2014 as its deadline for commissioning of the project.

The Odisha government also raised the issue of delays in progress of Petroleum, Chemicals and Petrochemicals Investment Region (PCPIR) project, for which IOCL is the anchor tenant.
"We discussed the issue of petrochemical complex as IOCL is the anchor tenant of the project and also talked about investment commitment received so far for the PCPIR," Debi Prasad Mishra said.
The Union minister informed the state government that some projects of the PCPIR unit would be commissioned by the end of this year and that Pradhan had also directed IOCL to prepare a roadmap for the PCPIR within three months, the release added.