New Delhi, Oct 4 (2016)

IOC, the nation's largest oil firm, plans to invest Rs 18,000 crore to raise capacity of its Panipat  refinery in Haryana to 25 million tonnes (mt) by 2020, larger than previously planned.

IOC had previously planned to raise capacity of Panipat refinery from 15 mt to 20.2 mt, but now it is looking at raising the capacity straightway to 25 mt, its Director (Refineries) Sanjiv Singh said here.

"We have land at Panipat refinery site and so we are looking at going straight to 25 million tonnes," he said. "We have to look at the capacity of the pipeline, which carries crude oil from west coast to the refinery before finalising if the capacity should be expanded to 20.2 million tonnes as planned earlier or go straight to 25 million tonnes."

IOC owns and operates 11 out of India's 23 refineries with a combined refining capacity of 80.7 mt per annum.

Singh said the company board will shortly take up investment approval for the Panipat expansion as well as that of capacity upgrade at Koyali refinery in Gujarat and Mathura unit in Uttar Pradesh

It is looking to scale up its Koyali refinery capacity to 18 mt from 13.7 mt currently while a 3-mtpa capacity addition is planned at Mathura. "We have land at both Koyali and Mathura, so the expansion would not be a problem," he said.

The IOC board had only last week approved over Rs 9,800 crore investment in expansion of its Barauni refinery in Bihar and setting up a petrochemical unit at the Panipat refinery complex.

The board, in its meeting on Thursday, approved expansion of the Barauni refinery to 9 mtpa from 6 mtpa. The expansion along with downstream polypropylene unit will cost Rs 8,287 crore, Singh said.

The Panipat refinery was commissioned in 1998 with a capacity of 6 mtpa. The refining capacity was doubled to 12 mtpa in 2006 and then raised to 15 mtpa in 2010.
Old Story  :- 
-- EC for this expansion project will be granted by, Dec 2017.

-- 10 MMTPA expansion projects includes additional units of CDU , Fluid Catalytic unit, DHT unit. Most probably expansion in three phases, the entire expansion project will be commissioned by 2022.
New Update:- 

-- PFR is ready for this expansion project.

-- IOCL selected EIL as a consultant and they hire EPC contractor.

-- first phase including the expansion from 9 MMTPA to 11.5 MMTPA, total costing of this expansion is 5,000 crore. After the first phase of expansion , the capacity would be raised eventually by 18 MMTPA. costing of the next expansion is 20,000 crore.

--  Petrochemical complex will include a new naphtha cracker unit.