3 Andhra Pradesh sites vie for PSU oil refinery

State-owned Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) and Gail India Ltd have shortlisted three sites in Andhra Pradesh for setting up a 15 million tonne per annum refinery, oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Monday.

“HPCL and Gail have carried out a prefeasibility-cum-configuration study for 15 million tonnes integrated refinery cum petrochemical complex and also a standalone petrochemical complex,” he said.

Financial appraisal of setting up the refinery-cum-petrochemical complex or just the petrochemical complex has also been carried out.

“Site selection study for three sites, namely, Nakkapalli cluster near Visa-khapatnam, Kakinada SEZ in East Godavari district and at Machilipa-tnam have been completed,” Mr Pradhan said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.

The project schedule, he said, would depend on completion of detailed feasibility report, financial appraisal of the project and subsequent appro-vals. He did not give further details.

Gail-HPCL are planning the petrochem project after their plans to team up with France’s Total, ArcelorMittal Group and Oil India Ltd for a 15 million tonne a year refinery-cum- petrochemical plant at Visakhapatnam in AP fell through as partners pulled out one after the other due to weak global demand.

The 5-way alliance of HPCL, explorer Oil India Ltd, gas utility GAIL India, Mittal Investment Sarl and Total in October 2007 had signed a memorandum of understanding to look at the feasibility of setting up the Vizag project.