Oil major to expand refining, petrochemicals and natural gas businesses

Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL), India’s largest refiner, plans to invest ₹2 lakh crore in the next 5-7 years to expand its refining, marketing, petrochemicals and natural gas business.

“Indian Oil has planned ₹2 lakh crore investments in the next five to seven years to evolve into a future-ready corporate that provides comprehensive energy solutions to diverse user groups,” said IOCL chairman Sanjiv Singh.

When asked about the break-up of investments, Mr. Singh told The Hindu, “As the conventional fuel business is growing, we are expanding almost all our refineries from Panipat to Paradip. We are also clubbing petrochemicals in all the refineries. We are making necessary investments in pipeline and marketing infrastructure so that there will be no shortage in meeting the growing energy demands of the country.”

IOCL accounts for about one-third of India’s refining capacity of 250 million metric tonnes per annum (mmtpa) with 11 refineries.

The company plans to invest over ₹20,000 crore in expansion of its petrochemicals project till 2023-24, after spending ₹25,000 crore in major petrochemicals projects in the Panipat and Paradip refineries.

IOCL, along with HPCL and BPCL, is building the world’s longest — 2,757-km — LPG pipeline from Kandla in Gujarat to Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh.

The company is taking up 17 pipelines at a combined cost of ₹24,000 crore to expand the network to about 21,500 km in the next three years.

Indian Oil plans to invest ₹10,000 crore in the development of the city gas distribution (CGD) network in the next eight years.

IOCL has spent ₹28,000 crore in the last fiscal and plans to invest ₹25,000 crore this fiscal.