Saudi Arabia approached to be stakeholder in Maharashtra's oil refinery and petrochemicals project

13-Jun-16

The government has approached Saudi Arabia with a proposal to be a stakeholder in the mega oil refinery and petrochemicals project on the west coast of Maharashtra at an estimated cost of Rs 1.5 trillion. Work on the 60-million tonne project will begin once the Maharashtra government identifies and acquires the land. The state will also be an equity partner in the project.

“On my last visit to Saudi, I met Saudi officials with an offer of a stake in the proposed mega refinery project in Maharashtra as a prospective partner. For this project we have already appointed Engineers India as the PMC (project management consultants). We have also finalised the contours of the special purpose vehicle that will carry out this large project,” said Union petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
In December, Pradhan had announced a plan to set up a new refinery and petrochemicals complex in Maharashtra. At that time he had asked the three state-run oil refiners — IndianOil, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) — to get ready to set up the largest refining and petrochemicals complex before 2017-end in coastal Maharashtra. Currently, there are two refineries of BPCL and HPCL in Mumbai.