‘IOC planning to raise capacity of Mathura refinery to 11 million tonnes’...

State-run and biggest retailer of petroleum products Indian Oil Corporation on Friday announced that it was planning to raise the capacity of its Mathura refinery to 11 million tonnes from the present eight million tonnes and was looking forward to early clearance at the Central government level.

The expansion of the Mathura refinery plan has been hanging fire with the Ministry of Environment and Forest for clearance as concerns have been expressed about the impact the project might have on the 17th-century monument Taj Mahal. “We have approached the Environment Ministry for necessary clearance and are hopeful that it happens early,” IOC Director (Refineries) B.N. Bankapur told a group of visiting journalists here.

At present, the Mathura refinery processes low sulphur crude from Bombay High, imported low sulphur crude from Nigeria and high sulphur crude from the Middle East. IOC is looking at raising the quantity of high sulphur crude processed at its seven refineries to save money on crude oil imports. “Currently our refineries process 50 per cent of high sulphur crude and we want to take this percentage up to 76 per cent by 2012 through upgrading our refineries,” he said. High sulphur crude is available at a discount of $4-5 per barrel to low sulphur crude oils.

Mr. Bankapur said the refinery up gradation and petrochemical plant being planned by the company will cut IOC’s naptha exports to 0.6 to 0.7 million tonnes from current level of over two million tonnes.

On the issue of taking crude oil from Cairn India’s Rajasthan facility from next year, Mr. Bankapur said it can take about two million tonnes of crude from the company’s Rajasthan oilfield but IOC was looking for a discount of up to $18 per barrel.

“The Panipat refinery can take 0.6 million tonnes of Rajasthan crude, while its Gujarat refinery can take 0.8 million tonnes. We can take two million tonnes of Rajasthan crude as there was a handicap to take more crude because of waxy nature of the Rajasthan crude,” he added.

Cairn India plans to produce 8.25 million tonnes of crude from its Barmer oilfield in Rajasthan and is looking at State-run refiners for selling the oil it plans to produce from second half of 2009.

Mr. Bankapur said the Rajasthan crude had to be economically priced as the company would have to incur additional cost for transporting the crude which turns solid at normal temperature.

Source: The Hindu