India planning to double its refining capacity to 450-500 MT by 2030: Pradhan

• Pradhan said that the construction of a refinery with an annual capacity of 60 MT on the west coast, which is crucial to the capacity doubling plan, will start soon

• Also, India plans to augment its oil pipeline network of 28,790 Km by another 15,000 Km and its natural gas lined of 16,981 Km by 14,239 Km

New Delhi: Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Tuesday that the government plans to double India's crude oil refining capacity to 450-500 MT (Million Tonnes) in the next 10 years to meet the country's rising fuel demand and cater to the export market. Addressing a webinar on 'Atmanirbhar Bharat: Fostering Domestic Steel Usage in Oil & Gas Sector,' Pradhan said that the construction of a refinery with an annual capacity of 60 MT on the west coast, which is crucial to the capacity doubling plan, will start soon.

"Our refining capacity will increase from about 250 million tonnes per annum now to 450-500 million tonnes in next 10 years," he said.

Refining capacity addition will include both brownfield & greenfield

Pradhan said that the refining capacity expansion plan will include both brownfield (expansion of existing units) and greenfield (new refineries). In 2019-20, India's refining capacity of 249.9 MT was higher than the fuel demand of 213.7 MT. However, fuel demand in the country is projected to rise to 335 MT by 2030. The IEA (International Energy Agency) expects India's fuel demand to reach 458 MT by 2040.

Pradhan also said that a new grassroot refinery of 9 MT is under construction at Barmer in Rajasthan, and existing units at Koyali in Gujarat, Panipat in Haryana, Paradip in Odisha, Vizag in Andhra Pradesh, Mumbai, Bina in Madhya Pradesh, Numaligarh in Assam and Chennai are being expanded.

India should be back on projected demand trajectory in 2 years: Indian Oil CMD

Speaking at the webinar, Indian Oil CMD Sanjeev Singh said that India's refining capacity will expand to 363 MT by 2030, to 443 MT by 2035 and 533 MT by 2040, quoting a recent report of the Working Group on Enhancing Refining Capacity. He added that while fuel demand has fallen in recent time due to slowdown in the economy in the wake of the Coronavirus lockdown, he noted that "in two years' time, we should be back to projected demand trajectory."

Elaborating on the expansion planned in the oil and gas sector, Singh said that 78,000 petrol pumps are planned to be added to the current tally of 69,109. Also, 2,207 CNG stations are to be expanded to 10,000. Also, India plans to augment its oil pipeline network of 28,790 Km by another 15,000 Km and its natural gas lined of 16,981 Km by 14,239 Km.