And now a 12 MT refinery in Allahabad by BPCL

Bharat Petroleum Corporation plans to have a new refinery in place at
Allahabad by 2020 by which time its total refining capacity will be
upwards of 60 million tonnes (mt). This will translate into a market
share of 35 per cent, top industry sources told Business Line. The
Allahabad refinery will have a capacity of at least 12 mt and will be
the fifth in the BPCL line-up after Mumbai, Kochi, Numaligarh (in
Assam) and Bina (Madhya Pradesh). BPCL's present refining capacity is
30.5 mt with Mumbai taking up the lion's share of 12 mt, followed by
Kochi (9.5 mt), Bina (scheduled for commissioning in the coming
months) at six mt and, finally, Numaligarh (three mt).
By 2020, both Kochi and Bina are expected to reach 15 mt each while
Numaligarh's capacity will have been doubled to six mt. The Allahabad
refinery will be a strategic fit for BPCL from the viewpoint of
servicing the northern region which is seeing a huge demand for
petro-products.BPCL had, many years earlier, zeroed in on Sultanpur in
Uttar Pradesh as the original site for the refinery. This was then
planned as a joint venture with Shell but the project remained on
paper. Since then, the location shifted to Allahabad, and BPCL will
now commission the project on its own. If things go according to plan,
2020 will see the oil major emerge the second largest downstream
player in the public sector after Indian Oil Corporation. Hindustan
Petroleum Corporation is expected to be over 45 mt with its refineries
in Bhatinda, Visakhapatnam and the new project on the west coast which
will replace the decades-old Mumbai refinery.
For the moment, BPCL is giving top priority to the Bina refinery which
will be one of its biggest growth drivers in the product-starved
regions of central and northern India. In fact, sources say that the
expansion to 15 mt could happen even in 2012-13, which would be less
than two years of commissioning the refinery. Once Allahabad is also
up and running some years later, the product pipeline from Bina could
also be extended here with the result that the entire Madhya Pradesh
and Uttar Pradesh belts could be serviced by BPCL. "This marks a big
leap forward from the present scenario where the company's presence is
largely confined to the south and west," sources said. BPCL has drawn
up 'Project Dream Plan' which will see its refining capacity touch 45
mt during 2015-16 translating into a market share of 33 per cent.
Mumbai, Sept. 27 :: ….by…..Murali Gopalan…. In the HINDU BUSINESSLINE
newspaper.