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Centre to inaugurate Barmer oil refinery & petchem complex in January next year

Centre to inaugurate Barmer oil refinery & petchem complex in January next year
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Barmer: Amid the blame game between the Centre and the Rajasthan government over the Barmer oil refinery and petrochemical complex across 4,800 acres of land, the petroleum and natural gas minister Hardeep Singh Puri confirmed on Tuesday that it will be inaugurated in January 2024- ahead of Lok Sabha elections.

The oil refinery and petrochemical complex are being set up by a joint venture company HPCL Rajasthan Refinery Limited (HRRL)of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) and the Rajasthan government having a stake of 74 per cent and 26 per cent respectively. The capacity of the complex is 9 million metric tonnes per annum (MMTPA) which includes 2.4 MMTPA of petrochemical products.

Minister Puri also claimed that current imports are to the tune of Rs 95,000 crore, and the complex post-commission shall reduce the import bill by Rs 26,000 crore. HRRL will produce Butadiene, which is the raw material to manufacture rubber, which is largely used in the tyre industry. This will provide impetus to the automotive industry. Currently, India is importing around 300 KTPA of synthetic rubber. With the availability of the key raw material, Butadiene, there is significant scope for a reduction in import dependency on synthetic rubber.

However, at the same time, he claimed that the cost of the project has been increased from Rs 43,000 crore to Rs 72,000 crore due to the price hike of steel, cement and other materials in the international market. Puri further called the most awaited project the "Jewel of the Desert", which will be a great gift by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the state of Rajasthan.

The project was conceived in 2008 and was initially approved in 2013 during the erstwhile Congress regime. The project was reconfigured and work commenced in 2018 by PM Modi. However, due to the pandemic crisis, the work got delayed. At the same time, petroleum and natural gas minister Hardeep Singh Puri denied all allegations by the state government over twisting cost overruns. Puri claimed that as this is a joint venture project, Congress ruled Rajasthan government is yet to release Rs 25,000 crore and also mentioned that the centre has no hesitation in taking the extra financial burden. But this will reduce the state government's equity share from 26 to 16 per cent.

The Ashok Gehlot-led government is betting big on RRP owing to its large potential for generating stable employment in the dry, largely rural Marwar region that straddles the western side of the state. However, the centre claimed the project engaged about 35,000 workers in and around the complex. Further, about 1,00,000 workers are engaged indirectly. A township, schools, hospitals, a dedicated green zone, and other amenities are expected to come up. Gehlot also blamed his predecessor Vasundhara Singh Raje and the BJP government, which ruled the state till 2018 for going slow on the project.

The refinery can process the crude produced in the state of Rajasthan locally. HRRL is the most complex integrated Refinery cum Petchem complex, producing about 26 per cent of petrochemical products right from the beginning. Rajasthan Refinery Project envisages to process imported crude as well as Rajasthan crude. The design crude mix is 1.5 MMTPA of Rajasthan crude and 7.5 MMTPA imported crude. The complex is also designed to process 9 MMTPA imported crude. It has nine major refinery units, and four major petrochemical units. In the cross country pipelines- Arab Mix Crude Pipeline from Mundra at Gujarat to Pachpadra refinery site is of 487 kms, Mangala Crude Pipeline from Mangala Processing Terminal to the refinery site is of 74 kms and Raw Water Pipeline from Nachna to the refinery is of 230 kms.

"This project will act as an anchor industry for an industrial hub not only for eastern Rajasthan but will steer India to its vision of achieving 450 MMTPA refining capacity by 2030," Puri mentioned.

The total annual contribution of the petroleum sector to the state exchequer shall be about Rs 27,500 crore out of which, contribution by the refinery complex is expected to be Rs 5,150 crore. Further, the exports of the products to the tune of about Rs 12,250 crore shall earn valuable foreign exchange, the minister claimed.

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