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The 15 million tonne Paradip oil refinery of Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL), which officially went on stream in February this year, is set to achieve full capacity utilisation by coming October.
"Generally, refineries take two years to operate at rated capacity. But we are confident to achieve this objective within the very first year of operation by October next", said Ramjee Ram, executive director, IOCL Paradip refinery project.
He said, all the units of the refinery are now operational and the stabilisation and synchronisation work is at full swing to reach the milestone.
The product basket of the refinery, built at a cost of about Rs 35,000 crore, includes high speed diesel (37.5 per cent), motor spirit (25.3 per cent), kerosene/ATF (13 per cent), LPG (5.2 per cent), pet coke (8.1 per cent) and sulphur (1.8 per cent)
Currently, the refinery is producing low-emission BS-IV-compliant motor fuels, which has put it in an advantageous position as the country goes for stricter regulations on pollution control front. "We can even step it up to produce BS-VI-compliant automobile fuel with the addition of few equipment. A detail study for rolling out such products has already been completed and approximately Rs 1000 crore will be invested for revamp of some units for the purpose", said Ram.
The government, with an objective to check automobile pollution, has set deadlines to BS-VI emission norms by 2020. "We can start producing fuels as per the BS-VI standards by October, 2019", he added.
It may be noted Paradip is the first refinery under IOC to be integrated with a petrochemical complex. The work on a polypropylene unit inside the refinery complex, being built at a cost of Rs 3000 crore, has already started and it is slated for commissioning in December, 2017.
Similarly, work is expected to begin soon on other petrochemical projects such as methyl, ethyl, glycol (MEG) plant, coke gasification unit, paraxylene plant and purified terephthalic acid (PTA) plant. The combined cost of these projects is estimated at about Rs 40,000 crore.
The refinery, at present, is catering to the markets in the eastern and southern states. It despatches about 50 per cent of its products through the sea route, 20 to 25 per cent through pipeline and the rest by surface transport. "There are certain issues relating to despatch, but those are being sorted out effectively", Ram said.
