HPCL to finalise 10 licensors for Rajasthan refinery

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had laid the foundation stone for the 9-million tonne or 1.8 lakh bpd greenfield refinery at Pachpadra village in Barmer district of Rajasthan being set up in a 75:25 joint venture with the state administration. It is slated to be completed by end-2020. The foundation stone for the project was first laid in September 2013.

But the project remained a non-starter as the state reworked the project and changed incentive structure including an interest-free loan of 16,845 crore to HPCL to be paid back in 15 years from the commissioning of the project.

The company, taken over by upstream energy major ONGC this January for a tad over Rs 36,915 crore as part of the governments divestment process, has around 24.8 million tonne (mt) refining capacity now. It has plans to ramp this up to 60 mt by 2030 and brownfield expansion to achieve the target is afoot with work.