Indian Oil takes tech leap in Mathura
New Delhi   08-Mar-2016

The Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Dharmendra Pradhan, has initiated the process to set up the first- of- its- kind Octomax unit in the country at the Mathura refinery that will help in the production of highoctane gasoline.

" The Mathura refinery will play a major role in meeting the government's target of introducing BSVI standards in petrol and diesel by 2020," Pradhan said at the foundation stone laying ceremony on Sunday.

The refinery will set up a plant of 55 kilo tonne per annum ( KTA) capacity at an estimated cost of ` 43 crore and is expected to be completed by October 2017.

" The plan is to further increase the capacity of the Mathura refinery to 11 million tonne per annum at a cost of ` 5,000 crore. But it depends on the Uttar Pradesh government facilitating the refinery by withdrawing the 5 per cent entry tax," he added. He also said he would personally take up the matter with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.

" The unit at Mathura refinery will be the first of its kind in India addressing the emerging scenario in petroleum refining," state- run Indian Oil Corp said in a statement.

" Octomax is a novel technology developed in- house by the research and development centre of Indian Oil for production of highoctane gasoline blending stock from the C4 stream to give very high octane number of the product," the statement said.

Pradhan said the government is pursuing hard to encourage blending of ethanol in petrol and western Uttar Pradesh has contributed in a big way in this direction. Out of 70,000 crore litre half of the quantity has been contributed by UP. The government has increased the support price of ethanol, which would encourage production of more sugarcane.

The Petroleum Ministry has also taken major initiatives to make available clean fuel LPG to every house. The world's largest scheme of direct transfer of subsidy has been implemented by the ministry.

On the call of the Prime Minister, 80 lakh Indians have given up their subsidy which has made it possible to pass it on to the below poverty line citizens, he added.

The minister also paid a visit to IndianOil- Mathura: Swarna Jayanti Samudaik Hospital, which is an initiative of IOCL for providing healthcare facilities to the community.

The unit at Mathura will be the first of its kind in India