With Vedanta Resour-ces’ takeover of Cairn India, the proposal to have a petroleum refinery in Rajasthan seems to have been revived. The group is likely to buy stake in the proposed project.
Vedanta Group’s Chairman Anil Agarwal met Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Friday in New Delhi, where the issue came up for discussion. Gehlot also met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Home Minister P Chidam-baram and Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia, where he is understood to have raised the issue of refinery and enhancement of production from Cairn’s Barmer field, besides other socio-economic issues.
A Rajasthan government’s press statement said Agarwal had expressed interest in participation in the refinery project. He also discussed the additional oil production potential in Rajasthan. He discussed the need for continuing exploration to achieve the target of three lakh barrels of oil per day and beyond from Barmer. Cairn India is producing 1.75 lakh barrel oil per day from Barmer.
According to the statement, he assured the chief minister that Vedanta would support the refinery by having a small stake in the project.
The chief minister, on his part, assured full support of the government in achieving the target of three lakh barrels of oil per day from Barmer. At three lakh bopd, Rajasthan would meet about 50 per cent of the country’s domestic crude oil production.
Post these meetings, the chief minister said he had already appraised the Prime Minister, the UPA chief Sonia Gandhi and the Union petroleum minister about common man’s feeling about the refinery in Rajasthan.
