Commissioning of IOCL refinery in Odisha by Dec: Pradhan

Reported by Chinmaya Dehury

Bhubaneswar, July 2:

The 15 MTPA refinery project being set up by the public sector Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) at Paradip, the port town in Odisha, may start its commercial operations by December end this year, Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said today.

After meeting Odisha Industries Minister Devi Prasad Mishra at New Delhi, Pradhan said the project is on the verge of completion and is expected to be commissioned by December end. He also informed that the Centre will prepare a blueprint for the petrochemical hub to come up at Paradip within three months.

Pradhan said IOCL has been directed to prepare a road map for the Petroleum, Chemicals and Petrochemical Investment Region (PCPIR) project in consultation with the state government and the concerned department.

IOCL, the anchor tenant for the project, has committed to set up a 15 million tonne refinery and petrochemicals complex at Paradip at an estimated cost of Rs 55,000 crore.

The PCPIR project in the state would be set up on 284.15 sq km (70,214 acres) of land spread over Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapara districts. The PCPIR hub is expected to attract investments to the tune of Rs 2.74 lakh crore.

IOCL is also firming up its plans for the second phase of the project involving an investment of Rs.7,650crore under which it is planning to set up a 0.7 million TPA capacity polypropylene unit at an estimated cost of Rs.3,150 crore. The project is expected to be complete by 2017-18.

IOCL is also planning to set up an ethylene derivatives complex at an estimated cost of Rs.4,500 crore and is currently conducting the feasibility study of the project. The project is expected to come up by 2019-20.