Indian Oil's Mathura Refinery Receives Environmental Clearance For Expansion Project

State-run oil refiner Indian Oil Corporation's Mathura refinery has received the environmental clearance for projects to expand its crude processing capacity to 11 mmtpa. Currently, the Mathura Refinery has processing capacity of 8 mmtpa.

Mathura Refinery head and executive director Asis Kumar Maiti told news agency PTI that the refinery has been accorded environmental clearance for residue upgradation and distillate yield improvement project with 11 MMTPA crude processing. 

The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change's impact assessment division gave the environmental clearance on November 22, according to the executive director. The proposal is likely to generate both direct and indirect employment opportunities.

Ever since its establishment, the Mathura Refinery has carried out more plantations and worked on reducing sulphur content in diesel and petrol produced at the unit. It has set up air monitoring stations at Farah, Keetham, Sikandara, and Bharatpur to assess the air quality in the area. The refinery has undertaken projects to upgrade its diesel and gasoline units to bring down the sulphur level by nearly 80 per cent, according to Mr Maiti.

With the commissioning of the facilities, Mathura Refinery is now supplying 100 per cent of its MS (petrol) and HSD (diesel) meeting BSVI norms, according to the officials.

Meanwhile, Indian Oil Corporation recently paid Rs 2,424 crore in terms of a dividend tranche to the government.

On Friday, November 26, shares of Indian Oil settled 3.74 per cent lower at Rs 120.95 apiece on the BSE. Indian Oil shares opened at Rs 125.65, touching an intra day high of Rs 125.65 and an intra day low of Rs 120.50 throughout the trading session.