IOC aims to start crude processing at Paradip refinery in Dec - exec

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Indian Oil Corp Ltd , the country's biggest oil refiner, aims to start crude processing at its 300,000-barrels-per-day (bpd) Paradip refinery in the eastern Indian state of Odisha in December, an executive said on Tuesday.

Start-up of the Paradip plant has been delayed several times. The latest deadline to commission the plant was in August/September.

"Crude has arrived at the refinery and crude storage tank commissioning is underway," Sanjiv Singh, the company's head of refineries, told reporters.

IOC, along with subsidiary Chennai Petroleum, controls about 31 percent of India's oil refining capacity of 4.3 million bpd.

(Reporting by Nidhi Verma in New Delhi and Aman Shah in Mumbai; Editing by Prateek Chatterjee)