Former secretary to the Government of India and environmental activist EAS Sarma has questioned the proposed relocation of an existing US refinery to the Andhra coast stating that bringing the dismantled refineries into the country was not only environmentally unacceptable but also involved the possibility of money laundering.
“Usually, prudent governments insist upon new refineries of state-of-art technology; not dismantled refineries from the west. It is surprising how the government has conceded to such a dubious proposal in this case. Such dismantled refineries are environmentally unacceptable, no matter what the promoter may say about Euro standards etc,” Sarma said in a letter addressed to the chief secretary of Government of Andhra Pradesh.
He also wrote a separate letter to petroleum secretary questioning the Centre’s policy on import of second-hand refineries.
It may be recalled that Amerind Petroleum Corporation Private Limited, a Hyderabad-based firm, had entered into an MoU with the Andhra Pradesh government to relocate a running refinery with 7.5 million tonne capacity from the US to the Petroleum, Chemicals and Petro-chemicals Investment Region (PCPIR) on the AP seacoast.
In his letter to the state government, Sarma also questioned as to how the government could choose a company and the promoter with no previous experience in the oil refining sector to develop a refinery project at all.