India: IOC's Gujarat Refinery To Invest Rs. 24,000-Crore On Projects Till 2022

IOC’s Gujarat Refinery located at Koyali will invest about Rs. 24,174-crore on new projects and expansions in the next five years, according to the refinery’s Executive Director, Mr. Sudhir Kumar.

The projects include capacity expansion to 18-mmtpa at a cost of Rs. 15,034-crore, oxo-alcohol petrochemical project (Rs. 4,157-crore), linear alkyl benzene (LAB) revamp project (Rs. 288-crore), BS-IV (Rs. 1,315-crore) and BS-VI (Rs. 3,380-crore) fuel production.

“Alongside improving the refinery’s energy performance as well as its ability to meet growing regional demand for finished products, the expansion and reconfiguration project also aims to equip the plant with greater flexibility to weather future disruptions in the supply-demand scenario and more closely integrate its production with downstream petrochemical units,” said Mr. Kumar.

The company is moving forward with the first phase of a long-planned project to expand crude oil processing capacity of its 13.7-million-tonne per year Koyali refinery.

“It is already approved by the company’s board in August last year, and the Rs. 15,034-crore expansion will increase the refinery’s total processing capacity by 4.3-million-tonnes per year to 18-million-tonnes per annum by year-end 2022,” he said.

Further, the company has already deposited an amount of Rs. 100-crore with the Gujarat government for acquisition of 85 acres of land from the surrounding villages around its refinery, required for two of its new projects, he added.

Scheduled to be commissioned between September 2019 and April 2020, the two BS-IV and BS-VI projects are designed to bring the refinery’s fuel production in line with the government’s decision to leapfrog to BS6 fuel compliance by April 2020.

The refinery is also the second-largest manufacturer of LAB in the country, exporting to over 20 countries. The unit has a production capacity of 120,000 metric tonnes per annum (mpta) of LAB. Considering the global and domestic supply and demand scenario, IOC board has approved a 35 per cent capacity revamp of LAB to 162,000-mpta at an estimated project cost of Rs. 288-crore.

IOC is also entering butyl acrylate market which has significant growth potential in India. The IOC board has approved the oxo-alcohol project to produce butyl acrylate as a final product which has a lucrative internal rate of return (IRR) of 17.9 per cent at an approved cost of Rs. 4,157-crore.