ONGC plans to set up refinery at Ankleshwar

Company to expand capacity of Tatipaka refinery in Andhra Pradesh

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) plans to set up a refinery at Ankleshwar in Bharuch district. It also proposes to expand capacity at its refinery at Tatipaka in Andhra Pradesh.

"While a plan for expansion of refining capacity of Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals (MRPL) has already been drafted, ONGC has decided to double capacity at its Tatipaka refinery to 0.12 mtpa," said a company source.

"The corporation is also going to set up a refinery at Ankleshwar, close to its crude production wells in Gandhar. Though a decision on the capacity of the proposed refinery has not yet been taken, looking at the demand for refining crude, the set-up is expected to be larger than the refinery at Tatipaka," the source added.

ONGC chairman and managing director Subir Raha was in Ahmedabad on Tuesday for a presentation on the corporation's upcoming projects to members of the Gujarat assets of ONGC. He was not available for comment.

With the Ankleshwar refinery expected to be commissioned by the first half of 2005-06, ONGC will have five refineries, including MRPL, Tatipaka, Uran and Hazira.

ONGC has been working out a strategy to use its idle gas lying close to Mangalore. The source said the proposed 1445mw power plant will be commissioned in Mangalore by September 2006. Another 1100 mw power plant at Ennore is also expected to be completed by that time.

"Both these projects can be considered as downstream for the MRPL refinery and they can also use the idle gas. However, with ONGC entering into the power business, we are not moving away from our core business of oil and gas. This can be called an attempt to become a full fledged company in the sector," said a senior ONGC official, requesting anonymity.

According to a source in the industry, ONGC will require to invest around Rs 1000 crore for the Ankleshwar refinery. With this, the company's investment commitment in Gujarat will mount to over Rs 4000 crore this year.

ONGC announced the setting up a ethane-propane and auto LPG extraction plant at Dahej for which an investment of Rs 901 crore was cleared by the company board. ONGC has also started work on a Rs 2792 crore Uran-Mumbai pipeline replacement project.

ONGC has signed a pact with Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation Limited for a joint-venture company to be set up for a coal gassification project.