Pradhan bats for IOC's Haldia refinery expansion; writes to fellow Ministers
New Delhi: Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has sought the personal intervention of his cabinet colleagues handling the chemicals and fertilizers and shipping ministries to get 175 acres of land needed for state-owned Indian Oil Corporation's (IOC) Haldia refinery expansion project in West Bengal.
IOC is building a new processing unit to improve the quality and production capacity of lubricant base oils at its recently expanded 8-million tonnes a year refinery in Haldia, Purba Medinipur, West Bengal.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of the planned catalytic dewaxing unit in a ceremony on February 7.
Pradhan on Thursday wrote to Union Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers D V Sadananda Gowda and Shipping and Ports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya seeking their personal intervention to get the land needed for the project.
"The refinery is bound by the Hooghly river on the south and by railway lines, canal and roads on the north and west sides. The only land available for expansion is towards the east, where the Hindustan Fertilizers Corporation Ltd (HFCL) is in possession of about 175 acres," he wrote to them.
IOC has been in constant touch with port authorities and HFCL to acquire the land parcel.
"It is understood that the issue of pending lease rental from HFCL, and interest thereon, needs to be resolved between the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers and Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, before the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs accords its approval for disposal of the land," he wrote.
The lease rental being demanded by Kolkata Port Trust-Haldia Dock Complex for HFCL land as well as for the Haldia refinery land are over 100 times the existing rates set by Tariff Authority on Major Ports.
"This would make it unviable for the refinery to acquire the land," he wrote.
Pradhan sought the intervention of the ministers to resolve the issue to enable IOC to establish its critical units of the refinery.
In his letter, Pradhan stressed the continued endeavour to be self-reliant in petroleum products and wrote that infrastructure development in the oil and gas sector is driven to expand its facilities to meet the domestic demands of quality and quantity of fuels and specialities.
Haldia refinery has increased crude processing capacity from 2.5 million tonnes initially to 8 million tonnes and the capacity to produce the best quality of fuels, lubricants and speciality products.
In recent times when the refinery was required to construct new units for producing Bharat Stage VI standard fuels, it dismantled existing storage tanks. And for the construction of some critical units, additional land is required.
Part of India's commitment to producing cleaner fuels, the catalytic dewaxing unit -- which, once in service, will be the Haldia refinery's second -- comes as part of IOC's capacity augmentation of its Bharat Stage VI (BS-VI, equivalent to Euro 6) plant to produce low-sulfur fuels and help reduce the country's current reliance on imports of lube base oils.
Meanwhile, State-owned Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) on Friday said it will invest Rs 32,946 crore to expand its oil refinery at Panipat in Haryana to 25 million tonnes per annum capacity and set up chemical units.
The expansion will be completed by September 2024, the firm said in a filing to the stock exchanges. Panipat refinery currently has a capacity to turn 15 million tonnes per annum of crude oil into value-added fuels such as petrol, diesel, and ATF.
Besides expanding the oil refining capacity, the company also plans to set up a polypropylene unit and a catalytic dewaxing unit.
Polypropylene is used in packaging, plastic parts for various industries including the automotive industry, special devices like living hinges, and textiles. Catalytic dewaxing is used in base oil production.
"The capacity expansion would improve the operational flexibility of the refinery to meet the domestic energy demand and would also enhance the petrochemicals intensity," IOC said.
