The Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) has officially decided to set up the country’s most expensive oil refinery and petrochemical complex in Andhra Pradesh. The initial estimate is that the construction will require a cost of about Rs 95,000 crore.
This was revealed by the BPCL Director (Finance) Vesta Ramakrishna Gupta and said that it has been decided to set up an oil refinery cum petrochemical complex with a capacity of nine million tonnes per annum in Andhra Pradesh.
He said that this will be the most expensive project among the oil and petrochemical refineries in the country. After Narendra Modi took office as Prime Minister in 2014, they planned to set up a 60 million tonnes mega oil refinery and petrochemical complex in Ratnagiri, Maharashtra, at an estimated cost of Rs 3 lakh crore, but it did not go ahead due to land acquisition issues.
It was revealed that the BPCL board has approved spending Rs. 6,100 crore under pre-project programs for land acquisition, detailed project report (DPR) and feedback studies for the oil refinery and petrochemical complex to be set up in AP.
He said that the AP government will provide capital subsidies to set up this project. However, it was revealed that the AP government has not given any indication regarding financial support. He said that the DPR and feedback study reports will take six to nine months.
According to preliminary estimates, the project cost will be Rs. 95,000 crores. He explained that the total project cost can be estimated after the reports come. He said that they are looking to take it up as a joint venture project. After the total cost is estimated, the project will be completed and put into use in 48 months.
He revealed that this project is being set up in the coastal area and land has also been identified. He said that 6,000 acres of land is required for this project and land acquisition work has to be undertaken. It was explained that the annual production capacity will be 3-3.5 million tons of petrol and diesel and 3.8-4 million tons of petrochemical feedstock.
It was believed that this project would be sufficient to meet India’s energy demand until 2040. It was revealed that three refineries have already been set up in the country (in Mumbai, Kochi, and Binal in Madhya Pradesh) and a fourth one is going to be set up in AP.
