IOC road map for refineries

New Delhi, Sept. 5: State-owned refiner Indian Oil Corporation plans to add 24 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) to its refining capacity by 2022 at an investment of about Rs 40,000 crore.

The expansion will help the PSU to garner additional foreign exchange through export of petroleum products and meet the growing energy demands of the country.

The 11 refineries of IOC have a total capacity of 80.7 mtpa and constitute 35 per cent of the country's refining capacity.

"Indian Oil will be adding almost 24mt of refining capacity, through brownfield expansions in its refineries across the country, during the next 5-6 years. These expansions will be carried out concurrent to the projects currently underway, to supply Bharat Stage-IV and Bharat Stage-VI compliant auto fuels across the country, from April 2017 and April 2020, respectively," Sanjiv Singh, director-refineries said.

It is looking to scale up its Koyali refinery in Gujarat to 18mt from 13.7mt, while the capacity of the Panipat refinery in Haryana will be raised by a quarter to 20.2mt from 15mt.

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

The recently commissioned 15mt Paradip refinery in Odisha will see a capacity addition of 5mt, while around 3mt will be added in Digboi and Bongaigaon refineries in the Northeast.

India has a refining capacity of 215mtpa through 22 refineries. The surplus capacity helped the country earn foreign exchange by exporting 64mt of petroleum products during 2014-15.

During the first quarter of this fiscal, IOC sold 21.37mt of products, including exports.

India imported 202mt of crude oil in 2015-16 for $64.4 billion, according to latest data available from the petroleum ministry. Imports stood at 189.4mt for $112.7 billion in the previous fiscal.

The country exported 60.5 mt of petroleum products last fiscal for $27 billion against 63.9mt of products worth $47.2 billion in 2014-15. The fall in exports was largely because of a slump in global crude prices.

The price of the Indian basket of crude averaged $84.16 per barrel in 2014-15 against only $46.17 a barrel in 2015-16.

International Energy Agency's world energy outlook projects a compounded annual growth of 4 per cent in India's fuel demand at 348mt by 2030 from 184mt tonnes in 2015-­16.

BP projects demand to be 335 million tonnes while EIA has pegged it at 294 million tonnes, which translates into a CAGR of 3 per cent.