The Hindu Business Line : Expansion of Vizag refinery: HPCL looks for partners

The expansion project, which envisages adding a refining capacity of 9.5 million tonnes (mt), is scheduled to be wrapped up by August 2010. The major units proposed are a crude distillation unit of 9 mt and associated secondary processing units like delayed coker unit (DCU), VGO hydro-treater, fluid catalytic cracking unit and diesel hydro treating unit.

Mr A.S. Rao, Executive Director of HPCL, told presspersons that the company was looking for partners who could supply crude, make financial investments and provide better marketing capabilities.

"We are open to taking on board more than one partner," he said, adding that HPCL was in talks with a few companies

Prospective partners

The company is also on the look out for prospective partners for its proposed petrochemical complex at Vizag, which would use feedstock from its refinery to produce PTA. The company has received 1,500 acres of land for the project. "We expect to finalise the partnership by the middle of next year," he said.

He pointed out that the objective behind setting up a PTA plant was to compensate for pressure on refinery margins.

The company also plans to set up a Rs 280-crore single buoy mooring (SBM) to handle three lakh DWT tankers off Vizag coast. Currently, the crude receiving facilities at the refinery have a capacity to handle only Suez Max tankers, with a parcel size of 1.5 lakh DWT due to draft limitations.

The SBM facility, which can handle very large crude carriers, is expected to save freight costs and cater to the refinery's expansion plans.

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