Indian Oil broadens scope of Gujarat refinery expansion plans

Indian Oil Corp. Ltd. (IOC) has approved the addition of a petrochemical and lube integration component to its previously announced and long-planned project that will expand crude oil processing capacity of its 13.7 million-tonne/year Koyali refinery at Vadodara in India’s western state of Gujarat (OGJ Online, Nov. 16, 2011).

Approved by the company’s board in late September, the revised 178.25-billion rupee expansion and petrochemical-lube integration project will increase crude processing capacity of the refinery by 4.3 million tpy to 18 million tpy as well as result in proposed production of 500,000 tpy of polypropylene and 235,000 tpy of lube oil base stock at the site, IOC said in filings to India’s National Stock Exchange Ltd. and BSE Ltd.

Inclusion of the petrochemical-lube integration component comes as part of IOC’s strategy to create a building block for future production of niche chemicals with a potential to increase petrochemical and specialty products integration index on incremental crude throughput to improve margins, according to the operator.

Previously slated for completion by yearend 2022, and aimed at improving the refinery’s energy performance as well as its ability to meet growing regional demand for finished products, the expansion and reconfiguration project also aims to equip the plant with greater flexibility to weather future disruptions in the supply-demand scenario and more closely integrate its production with downstream petrochemical units (OGJ Online, Aug. 8, 2017).

IOC—which during the last year completed its Bharat Stage (BS) 4 and BS 6-grade (equivalent to Euro 5 and Euro 6-quality) fuels to enable Gujarat to produce Bharat Stage (BS) 4 and BS 6-grade (equivalent to Euro 5 and Euro 6-quality) fuels in line with the Indian government’s Auto Fuel Policy 2025 calling for 100% BS 6-quality fuel production—now plans to fully commission the long-awaited expansion and accompanying BS 6 fuel upgrading projects at the refinery during 2024-25, the operator said in its recent 2019-20 annual report to investors.

The linked table presents an overview of the Gujarat refinery’s proposed major unit capacities—including additions and revamps—following the planned expansion.