IOC Chalks Out Plan To Double Refining Capacity By 2030

State-owned Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. (IOC) plans to nearly double oil refining capacity to 150 mt by 2030 and source 10 percent of the need from its own assets, said Chairman Sanjiv Singh.

India's largest oil firm possesses refining capacity to produce 80.7 million tonnes per annum of fuel.

These include a 60 mt integrated refinery-cum-petrochemical project on the west coast IOC is implementing with BPCL and HPCL at a cost of Rs 2.7 lakh crore, he added.

IOC has 50 percent stake in the project.

International Energy Agency's World Energy Outlook projects 4 percent CAGR (compounded annual growth rate) in India's fuel demand to 348 mt by 2030, from 194 mt in 2016-17.

BP projects demand to be 335 mt while U.S. EIA has pegged it at 294 mt. India has a refining capacity of 232.06 mt.

“As part of its quest to become an integrated energy major, IOC is expanding its upstream portfolio of domestic and overseas oil and gas blocks to be able to source at least 10 percent of its crude oil requirements from its own assets in the medium term,” Singh said.

IOC has stake in eight domestic and nine overseas oil and gas blocks in Libya, Gabon, Nigeria, Yemen, Venezuela, Russia, Canada and the U.S.

It has fuel retailing and terminal operation in Sri Lanka and Mauritius and is looking at entry into other emerging markets in South-East Asia and Africa, with overseas offices coming up in Singapore, Myanmar and Bangladesh.

The brownfield expansions include Rs 15,034 crore plan to raise capacity of Koyali refinery in Gujarat to 18 mt, from the current 13.7 mt. Capacity of the Panipat refinery in Haryana will be raised by a quarter to 20.2 mt, from the current 15 mt.

A 3-mt capacity addition each is planned in Uttar Pradesh's Mathura and Bihar's Barauni refineries, which will take their capacity to 11 mt and 9 mt, respectively.

The recently-commissioned 15 mt Paradip refinery in Odisha will see a capacity addition of 5 mt while about 3 mt will be added in IOC's Digboi and Bongaigaon refineries in the North-East.

He, however, did not give investment details of the expansions that will take the capacity to 150 mt.

Singh said IOC plans to commission its 5 mt a year LNG import terminal at Ennore in Tamil Nadu in early 2018.