Panipat Refinery Delayed By A Year

Production at the Indian Oil Corporations Panipat refinery is expected to be delayed by at least a year, throwing the governments summer and winter distribution plans for petroleum products into disarray.

According to latest official estimates, the six million tonne refinery, which was scheduled to be commissioned in April this year, is now expected to start production by March, 1998.

The Panipat refinery is one of the nine petroleum projects in the country which are facing inordinate delays.

In some cases, like the Numaligarh refinery project, the delay extends to as much 19 months.

The delays are not only pushing up the countrys oil import bill, but are also having an adverse impact on the oil pool account which is already running a deficit of over Rs 16,000 crore.

In the case of the Panipat refinery, besides the refinery project, crude oil transportation to the refinery has been delayed by 10 months and the marketing terminal at the refinery delayed by eight months.

While the catalytic reformer at Digboi is experiencing a delay of eight months, the new coker at Digboi is delayed by four months, the catalytic reformer at Mathura by eight months and the Visakh Refinery expansion project by seven months.

Moreover, the LPG import facilities at Mangalore, which were to be commissioned by September 9, 1996, are now likely to be commissioned on June 30, 1997.