Oil minister hints at reviving West Coast refinery project in Maharashtra

Oil minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Thursday hinted at reviving the stalled mega West Coast refinery project in Maharashtra.

Addressing an industry event here, the minister said no concrete proposal has been come to him yet from the state or from investors.

"We have sent feelers to all and the response so far has been good. The 60 million tonne per annum project can come up anywhere in Maharashtra or any other west coast state or even in a southern state and it need not be in Ratnagiri alone," Puri told reporters later.

"We are also thinking of splitting the project to two or more locations but it would be best if the over Rs 3 lakh crore project can come up at a single location as originally planned," the minister said.

The project was put on the back burner amid opposition from locals.

The world's largest oil company Aramco of Saudi Arabia and UAE's Adnoc were keen to pick up considerable minority stakes in the project that was jointly floated by the three national oil companies -- Indian Oil, BPCL and HPCL.