IndianOil goes for gold against RIL in refinery space
New Delhi   01-Oct-2012

IndianOil, the country’s largest state-owned oil refiner, wants to consolidate its position in the refinery space by setting up a new facility on the west coast and augmenting capacities of existing refineries. IndianOil’s 62-mmtpa refining capacity, comprising half of India’s 20 refineries built over 100 years, was matched by private sector peer Reliance Industries in less than a decade with just two refineries on the west coast, after it commissioned its SEZ project in December 2008.Since then, IndianOil has increased capacity to 65 mmtpa by de-bottlenecking and creeping acquisitions. While RIL has lined up $12-billion investments to integrate its petrochemical projects with its refineries, IndianOil plans to invest about $10 billion to achieve a capacity exceeding 100 mmtpa by 2020 to move ahead and maintain a lead. We are India’s biggest refiner and will remain so, IndianOil chairman R S Butola told TOI. Between them, IndianOil and RIL account for about 70% of Indias refining capacity.