NEW DELHI: Having missed the March 2012 deadline for completing the 15-million tonne per annum refinery project at Paradip, Odisha due to multiple factors, Indian Oil Corporation has now set a new timeline of around September next year for commissioning the project.
“The project was originally scheduled to be completed by March 2012. Now we are looking at a schedule of commissioning (most of the units of the refinery) by September 2013,” Rakjumar Ghosh, Director-Refineries, IOC, told Express.
A mix of factors such as changes in engineering design due to deferment of petrochemicals resulting in delay in submission of detailed engineering and subsequent procurement and contract lining up by project management consultant Foster Wheeler, change in sourcing of power from Tata Power-IOC joint venture to own captive power plant, delay in supply of critical equipment from vendors, local issues etc.
The other factors that have led to the delay in commissioning of the project include imposition of an interim stay by Odisha HC on all construction activities at Hadia-Patha area on Mahanadi river since July 2011.
When completed, the refinery will have a crude and vacuum distillation unit, a hydrocracking unit, a delayed coker unit and other secondary processing facilities. The project is being constructed over 3,344 acres with IOC having already spent nearly `15,000 crore on it.
The refinery was originally planned to export at least 2.05 million tonnes of petrol and 124,000 tonnes of naphtha out of its yearly output of 15 million tonnes. But double-digit growth in petrol and diesel consumption has left very little for exports.
Paradip refinery will produce 5.97 mt of diesel, 3.4 mt of petrol, 1.45 mt of kerosene/ATF, 536,000 tonnes of LPG, 124,000 tonnes of naphtha and 335,000 tonnes of sulphur, all of which will be sold in the domestic market.