IndianOil to give Rs 54,000 crore investment boost to Tamil Nadu

CHENNAI: Fortune 500 company Indian Oil Corporation, which sees TN as an important market, has plans to invest Rs 54,000 cr in various projects within the next few years, a top official said here on Thursday.

Outlining the business plans of the country’s largest fuel refiner and retailer, VC Asokan, ED and state head (TN, Puducherry), IOC, said “TN has been a major contributor to IOC sales volume-wise,” adding the oil major has been constantly investing in the southern state to improve the infrastructure and product offerings.

“We have achieved 10 per cent ethanol blending with petrol in TN and Puducherry last year,” he said, noting that efforts were on to take this to 20 per cent by 2025 aligning with the government mandate.

Also, in TN, it has commissioned E20 fuel, dispensing it via 26 retail outlets (ROs) as on date. Plans are afoot to add E20 fuel in 66 ROs before March next year.

As part of the oil major’s greening vision, it has already started blending bio-diesel in TN at Sankari terminal. “We will be soon starting from Asanur, which will be followed by Coimbatore,” Asokan said, adding that such an exercise will commence in other locations in a phased manner.

In TN, IndianOil has issued 200 letter of intents for setting up compressed biogas or CBG production plants, that will be batched as “IndiGreen.” Three such plants have already gone commercial, IOTL, Namakkal, Energim, Cuddalore and Srinivasa Waste in Chennai. “We are dispensing CBG from six IndianOil retail outlets in Namakkal and two in Cuddalore,” he said.

Speaking about the progress in the LNG business, Asokan said the oil behemoth has ventured into setting up dispensing stations across the country. “For the first time, we have started dispensing LNG for heavy vehicles for use as transport fuel. We are establishing six LNG dispensing stations in TN, one of which is in the pilot stage at Sriperumbudur,” he said, adding Ponneri, Othakadai, Namakkal, Coimbatore and Koneripalli would be the other station locations.

This kind of dispensation would smoothen the transportation aspect since in a single fill 800 km distance can be covered, he said, dwelling on the 56 KL LNG tank which are to be linked with dispensing stations.

On electric vehicles charging stations (EVCS), he said 400 such stations have been set up in TN. “We have also set up one at the Chennai airport and plan to set up another 300 stations this year,” Asokan said, noting that it was completely safe.

Likening it to a chicken and egg situation, he said 10,000 EVCS were proposed to be set up across the country though it may not look viable at this point in time. But collaborating with the Tatas and other companies would make this endeavour a sustainable one in the long run.

A greenfield refinery is coming up at Narimanam in Nagapattinam. “The BS4 unit had to be dismantled to make it BS6-compliant with a 9-10 million tonne capacity,” he said, explaining the rationale of making it viable.