Rajasthan, HPCL ink pact for Rs 43,000 cr refinery

Jaipur, Aug 17 (IANS) The Rajasthan government on Thursday signed an agreement with the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) to form a joint venture company to set up a Rs 43,129 crore petroleum refinery-cum-petrochemical complex in the state's Barmer district.

The Union government had given approval to the project on Wednesday.

As per the agreement, HPCL will hold 74 per cent and the state government 26 per cent partnership in the new firm to be known as HPCL Rajasthan Refinery Ltd (HRRL).

Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje presided over the signing ceremony at her residence where the state's Principal Secretary, Mines and Petroleum Aparna Arora and HPCL Director (Finance) of HPCL J. Ramaswami signed the agreement.

As per the proposed plan, the project would be established on 4,813 acres of land and the entire construction work is slated to be completed in four years.

Meanwhile, 270 MW power would be generated from the waste petcoke generated from the refinery. A green zone would be established in the refinery campus and a new industrial area would also be developed.

Raje directed the officials to proceed on a fast pace as soon as environmental clearance was received from the Union Environment Ministry.

She also noted that after further negotiations between the two sides, the state was able to make significant savings of Rs 40,000 crore, while it would receive 12 per cent return on investment instead of earlier 2 per cent accepted in the previous MoU, signed in 2013 by the then Ashok Gehlot government.

However, the current Vasundhara Raje government always considered it to be a loss-making agreement for the state government and sought to renegotiate the terms.

As per the Gehlot government's MoU, Rajasthan was given 26 per cent partnership in the project with the viability gap funding (VGF) payment worth Rs 60,000 crore.

Raje also said that this would be the first petro refinery in the country to produce BS-VI emission standards, adding that this would be a major step towards controlling carbon emissions and have substantial impact on environment.

She said the project of refining Rajasthan's crude oil to produce petroleum and other petrochemical products would substantially strengthen the economy of not only Barmer, but the entire state and generate opportunities for both direct and indirect employment.