Indian Oil Corp to commission Paradip refinery in early 2015

Indian Oil Corporation Ltd’s (IOCL) 15 million tonne oil refinery in Paradip (Odisha), which is running behind schedule, is expected to go on stream by early 2015. “The IOCL refinery at Paradip, the largest in the public sector, is nearing completion. The refinery would be commissioned by early 2015,” said Dharmendra Pradhan, the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Government of India. He said that Rs 34,000 crore has already been invested on the IOCL refinery.
 
IOCL had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the state government in February 2004 to set up a 15 million tonne refinery along with a petrochemical complex at Paradip envisaging a total investment of Rs 60,000 crore.
 
While IOCL went ahead with its refinery project, it had kept in abeyance the petrochemical complex, citing financial constraints.
 
Asked on the petrochemical complex, Pradhan said, “The polypropylene unit of the petrochemical chemical complex would be inaugurated next month.”
 
The polypropylene unit would cost Rs 3,150 crore. Earlier, Pradhan met Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and reviewed the status of IOCL refinery and the upcoming PCPIR (petroleum, chemicals and petrochemicals investment region) hub. The PCPIR is planned across 284 sq km in Kendrapara and Jagatsinghpur districts and is expected to attract investments to the tune of Rs 2.74 lakh crore.
 
“At the review meeting, we reiterated our demand for starting the petrochemical complex. Unless the petrochemical complex comes up, investments to the PCPIR hub will suffer. We have also urged IOCL to pick up equity in the plastic park being developed by Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Idco),” said State Industries Minister Debi Prasad Mishra.
 
Naveen Patnaik, Chief Minister, Odisha, said, “We reviewed the status of IOCL refinery and other projects with the Union minister of petroleum & natural gas and his team. We requested the Centre to take steps for value addition so that it creates more employment and revenue for the state.”
 
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas has announced an investment of Rs 3,800 crore to develop the biggest strategic petroleum reserve in the country in Odisha.
 
“The strategic petroleum reserve will come up at Chandikhole. We have requested the state government to allot 400 acres. The reserve will have a storage capacity of 3.7 million tonne. The reserve will help meet the country's fuel need in time of crisis,” Pradhan said.
 
Presently, there are three strategic oil reserves in the country - Vizag (Andhra Pradesh) and Manmgalore and Padur, both in Karnataka. Four more oil reserves have been proposed at Bikaner (Rajasthan), Rajkot (Gujarat), Padur (Karnataka) and Chandikhole (Odisha).