New Delhi, March 7 (IANS) State-run oil marketing company (OMC) Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) plans to invest Rs.45,000 crore by 2020 in capacity expansion of its Mumbai and Visakhapatnam refineries, along with augmenting of its marketing infrastructure.
While Rs.21,000 crore would be invested in increasing refining capacity, Rs.9,000 crore would be spent in marketing infrastructure, till 2020, the company said in an investor presentation over the weekend, as communicated to the stock exchange.
A total of Rs.14,000 crore would go into joint venture refinery projects, natural gas business and upstream oil exploration,
The oil marketer will invest Rs.4,199 crore in expanding its Mumbai refinery capacity to 9.5 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) from the existing 6.5 MTPA, and another Rs.17,000 crore in expanding its Visakhaptnam refinery to 15 MTPA capacity, from the current 8.
HPCL said the investments would also help the company produce "products confirming to Euro V/VI" emission specification.
It also said $350 million is planned to be spent in raising capacity of the 9 MTPA Bhatinda refinery to 11.25 MTPA.
"Additional volumes would cater to growth in demand in northern India," it said.
HPCL and steel baron Lakshmi N. Mittal are equal partners in the Bhatinda refinery in Punjab. HPCL and Mittal Investment Sarl hold 48.94 percent stake each in HPCL-Mittal ENergy Ltd while the balance is with financial institutions.
The company is also partnering Mumbai-based infrastructure major Shapoorji Pallonji to set up a 5 MTPA liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal at Chhara port in Gujarat, at a cost of Rs.5,411 crore
"Financial closure for the project has been completed," HPCL said.
While HPCL holds 50 percent stake in the project, SP Ports, a unit of the Shapoorji Pallonji Group, holds the balance.
The company is investing Rs.1,782 crore in laying new pipelines, fuel depots and LPG plants, it said.
It is also building 2 LPG pipelines - the 397-km Mangaluru-Hassan-Mysore-Bengaluru pipeline and the 168-km Uran-Chakan one - the statement added.
Meanwhile on Sunday, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan laid the foundation stone for India's first "Octomax" unit at the Mathura refinery of the country's biggest OMC, state-run Indian Oil, for the production of high-octane transport fuels.
"The unit at Mathura refinery will be the first of its kind in India addressing the emerging scenario in petroleum refining," Indian Oil said in a statement.
"Octomax is a novel technology developed in-house by the research and development centre of Indian Oil, for production of high-octane gasoline blending stock from the C4 stream to give very high octane number of the product," the statement said.
"The refinery will set up a plant of 55 kilo tons per annum (KTA) capacity at an estimated cost of Rs.43 crore and it is expected to be completed by October 2017, it added.
"Mathura refinery will play major role in meeting government's target of introducing BS-VI standards in petrol and diesel by 2020," Pradhan said at the foundation laying event.
The HPCL stock closed on the last trading day on Friday at Rs.748.80 a share, up 18.25 points, or 2.50 percent, over its previous close on the Bombay Stock Exchange. Markets remained closed on Monday on account of the Shivratri festival.
