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IOC projects in Bengal to be over by 2003

Our Bureau

CALCUTTA, May 16

INDIAN Oil Corporation's various projects worth Rs. 3,500 crores in West Bengal, now under various stages of execution, will be completed by 2003.

Giving this information here, Mr. M.C. Sachdeva, ED of Marketing Division and Mr. B.K. Mukherjee, ED of Haldia Refinery of IOC, said that the bulk of the investments would take place in the refinery. The break-up is: refinery division (Rs. 2,500 crores), marketing division (Rs. 400 crores) and pipelines division (Rs. 600 crores).

The major refinery projects, according to Mr. Mukherjee, included hydrocracker unit (Rs. 1,450 crores), catalytic lube ISI-dewaxing unit (Rs. 422 crores), fluidised cracking unit (Rs. 400 crores), MS quality improvement project (Rs. 176 crores) new vacuu m distillation unit (Rs. 90 crores) and residuam oil super critical extraction technology (Rs. 44 crores).

The crude processing capacity, set to increase to six million tonnes per annum (mtpa) from the present around four mtpa following the commissioning of the FCC unit, would rise further to 7.5 mtpa once the hydrocracker unit went into stream. On completion of the projects on hand, Haldia refinery would boast of top-class lubes as well as environment-friendly motor spirit and diesel. The final clearance of the hydrocracker unit was still awaited, he said.

The major projects of the marketing division included the setting up of new LPG bottling plants at Raninagar, Malda and Chandernagar. Once these plants were commissioned, its LPG bottling capacity in the state would be up by 1,32,000 tonnes over the pres ent 1,72,000 tonnes. Work on the Rs. 180-crore LPG import facility at Haldia in partnership with Petronas of Malaysia was in progress.

To meet the projected increased in the demand of various petroleum products, IOC was adding to its tankage capacity both at the marketing and refinery levels at an investment of over Rs 100 crores. Right now IOC has five storage terminals, three bulk dep ots, four aviation fuel stations and four tap off points in the State.

IOC, according to Mr. Sachedeva, proposed to set up 20 new retail outlets (petrol pumps) and seven jubilee outlets and modernise 17 retail outlets in West Bengal as per Vision 2000 and the total investment envisaged was Rs. 85 crores. Currently, it has 4 19 retail outlets, 324 kerosene dealers and 219 Indane (LPG) distributors.

With the centre proposing to allow use of LPG as fuel for automobiles, IOC wants to have LPG filling facility for automobiles at five centres in the city by the end of 2000. ``By that time, all necessary orders from the Centre will hopefully have been re ceived'', he said.