Bharat Petroleum Corporation's Kochi Refinery, set to emerge as the largest refining facility in the country with a capacity of 15.5 million tonnes a year, is expected to complete the process of licensee selection for six processes by the middle of January.
The expansion programme, announced by the Union Petroleum Minister, Jaipal Reddy, here in October, was on schedule, sources said here on Friday. They said that the licensee selection process, at an advanced stage now, was expected to be completed by the middle of January.
BPCL-Kochi Refinery will incur an expenditure of around Rs.300 crore in securing licences for the delayed coker unit, diesel desulphurisation unit, vacuum gas oil hydro treating unit, petro-fluidised catalytic cracking unit, naphtha hydro treater and sulphur recovery unit.
The oil refining and marketing company is also at an advanced stage of selecting a joint venture partner for the proposed petrochemicals complex, which will involve an investment of Rs.7,000 crore. Initial round of discussions with a technology partner for the joint venture has been successful. Besides BPCL and the selected technology partner, Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation is expected to hold a share in the venture along with financial institutions or any other investor identified by the promoters.
Application for environmental clearance for the refinery expansion project is expected to be ready after the licences for the processes are finalised.
According to the current schedule, public hearing is expected in February. The detailed feasibility report, to be considered by the BPCL board, is expected to be ready by March. Environmental clearance is also expected around the same time.
With refining capacity going up to 15.5 million tonnes a year, the refinery will produce 5 lakh tonnes of propylene and generate nearly 9 lakh tonnes of petrochemical products, which will include acrylates, super absorbent polymer and phenol.
The petrochemical complex is expected to spawn at least a score of downstream units making products ranging from paints and inks to diapers, cooling gel packs and hand sanitizers.
