India advances plan for integrated mega-refinery
Ratnagiri Refinery & Petrochemicals Ltd (RRPCL) – a consortium of public-sector refining firms Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL), and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) alongside overseas strategic partners Saudi Aramco and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company – is moving ahead with a plan to set up a 60 million-tonne/year grassroots integrated refining and petrochemical complex at Babulwadi, Taluka Rajapur, in Ratnagiri District, Maharashtra, on India’s west coast.
At this stage, and despite some local opposition to the project due to concerns related to the project’s effect on the environment, there is no proposal to reconsider or revisit the previous decision to set up the mega-refinery at Rajapur, India’s federal government said on the 30th July.
The land chosen for the project is mostly barren, rocky, and undulating, and while mango trees and agricultural cultivation are present in small pockets, the site – designated as an industrial area – remains outside an ecosensitive area, the government said.
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Per IOC, impact of refinery operations on the agricultural crops of the region would not be very high, as the refinery would meet the stringent environmental standards followed worldwide.
The government said RRPCL has initiated an awareness campaign via print and electronic media, as well as door-to-door campaigning, to impress upon the local population about the benefits of the project and to dispel misconceptions about any adverse environment impacts involved in setting up the refinery.
The announcement follows a series of social media posts from Maharashtra government officials in the days following ADNOC’s signature of an MOU with Aramco to jointly hold 50% interest in the planned US$44-billion project.
Aramco and ADNOC, along with IOC, BPCL, and HPCL – which collectively will hold the remaining 50% interest in the project – are in the process of jointly executing Engineer India Ltd’s (EIL) recently completed prefeasibility study for development of the complex, including basic technical and overall configuration, the partners said in June.
The project partners also said they soon would undertake a further configuration study, which in turn will lead to execution of a detailed feasibility study for the mega-project before reaching a final investment decision.
Previously planned for construction in two phases over seven years, the mega-complex was to include an initial phase with a crude processing capacity of 40 million tpy to be followed by second phase which would expand capacity by another 20 million tpy to process a blend of two crudes within a gravity range of 27-30° API, according to documents posted to India’s Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change (EFCC) website.
The complex also will have flexibility to process opportunity crudes, including waxy and high-tan grades as well as condensates, according to EFCC documents.
Alongside producing a wide range of refined petroleum products – including gasoline and diesel which comply with BS VI-grade (equivalent to Euro 6-quality) norms – the refinery also will provide feedstock for an integrated petrochemicals complex which will be able to produce about 18 million tpy of petrochemical products, the Indian government said.
Once completed, the Maharashtra complex would displace the 33 million-tpy refinery operated by privately owned Reliance Industries Ltd at its two-refinery, 60 million-tpy Jamnagar manufacturing complex to become India’s largest refinery.
A timeframe for the project’s detailed feasibility study and FID have yet to be revealed.
Source: Oil & Gas Journal