India to Build Mega Refinery in Maharashtra

NEW DELHI (Sputnik) — Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan informed parliament in a written reply that Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) have announced a plan to jointly set up an integrated refinery-petrochemical complex with a refining capacity of 60 MMTPA in Maharashtra. Engineers India Limited (EIL) has started carrying out a detailed feasibility study of the this project.

Oil Public Sector Units and Engineers India Limited are in the process of site selection for the refinery in consultation with the government of Maharashtra. Setting targets for operations depends on land availability, environment clearance, etc.

In what will be India's biggest oil refinery, costs are estimated at $30 billion.

"The refinery would be a special purpose vehicle like entity with anew marketing network. Primary structure has been formed and we have offered the refinery to Saudi Aramco as a prospective partner. Maharashtra government is also a partner of this project as they are providing the land for us and our technical team is looking into details of that," Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan said.

The construction of the refinery will begin by March of next year.