Oil firms to up refining capacity by 8% this year

Indian refiners plan to increase refining capacity by eight per cent this fiscal to meet rising demand, Petroleum Minister Murli Deora said on Wednesday.

"In 2006-07, we expect production in the additional six million tonnes per annum capacity at Indian Oil Corp's Panipat refinery and 3.23 million tonnes per annum capacity addition in the two Hindustan Petroleum refineries at Vizag and Mumbai," he said at the Economic Editors Conference here.

Deora said the country's refining capacity would be expanded to 148.97 million tonnes a year by the end of 11th Five Year Plan period ending 2012.

"We expect that at the beginning of the 11th Plan, which is just a few months away, refining capacity could become 148.97 million tonnes, in which the contribution of the public sector refineries would be 105.47 million tonnes per annum."

"In the 11th Plan, there is a target of adding about 86 million tonnes per annum capacity in the country by 2011-12," he said.