India looking at cutting west coast refinery capacity as cost escalates to $60 bn

India is looking at cutting capacity at its biggest oil refinery to match lower fuel demand projections and contain costs which jumped to USD 60 billion due to meeting stringent environment norms and relocation of the plant, top officials said.

State-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) together with Saudi Aramco and Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) plan to set up a 60 million tonnes refinery-cum-petrochemical complex on Maharashtra coast.

The refinery was projected to cost USD 44 billion (about Rs 3.08 lakh crore) but meeting stringent environment norms such as not producing petroleum coke, and relocation of the plant has jacked up the cost to an estimated USD 60 billion (about Rs 4.2 lakh crore).

"Supreme Court has mandated that you cannot sell petroleum coke and so to produce fuel without any such residue requires the use of best in class technology and will cost more," an official said.

Also, the unit will now be ...