More than a year after scrapping the Rajasthan refinery project, state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation will re-examine the feasibility of setting up a 15 million-tonne refinery in the desert district adjoining Indo-Pak border.
Rajasthan's Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot demanded a refinery project in the state that will provide direct and indirect employment to one lakh people.
Originally proposed in 2004-05, the project was declared economically unviable after the previous Vasundhara Raje government in Rajasthan did not agree to give fiscal incentive like interest free loan and sales tax exemption for the project.
"Whatever (fiscal) concession you need, we will offer," Gehlot said at a stone cutting function here for laying off a pipeline to transport Cairn India's Rajasthan crude.
The Chief Minister first raised the demand for the refinery at a function near Jaipur yesterday where UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi was present and today again reiterated the demand for a refinery at Barmer district to process Cairn India's oil found in the area.
"We had a meeting yesterday and Petroleum Minister Murli Deora and ONGC Chairman R S Sharma have assured that they will re-examine possibility of the refinery," he said, adding that the state government recognise the fact that a project can be set up only if economically viable.
Deora on his part said that ONGC would do a feasibility study again considering the fiscal concession that the Rajasthan government was willing to extend to the project.
The refinery is not considered viable because it will need, besides fiscal incentives, two pipelines -- one to import crude oil and the other to export products out.
