India’s BPCL to invest USD 2.8bn in refinery expansion

India’s Bharat Petroleum (BPCL) is planning to invest USD 2.8bn to increase production capacity of two refineries in Assam and Madhya Pradesh in a bid to support expansion of its gas station network in the BRIC country, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday.

The production capacity of Numaligarh refinery in Assam will be tripled to nine 9 million metric tonnes per annum (mmtpa) from 3 mmtpa at present.

“The Numaligarh refinery expansion is still in the drawing-board stage and it would hinge on tax concessions and other benefits from the provincial and federal governments,” the news report quoted S. Varadarajan, chairman of BPCL, as saying.

The Bina site refinery in Madhya Pradesh will see its capacity being increased to 8 mmtpa from 6 mmtpa. “We will complete the Bina expansion before December 2016 through debottlenecking, tweaking some existing configuration and technological improvements,” Varadarajan added.

BPCL’s Numaligarh Refinery Limited recently announced plans to construct 1,338 km crude oil pipeline from Dhamra port in Odisha to its oil refinery in Assam.