By Nidhi Verma and Manoj Kumar
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India’s Bharat Petroleum Corp plans to invest $11 billion in southern Andhra Pradesh state for a new refinery and petrochemical project to meet rising fuel demand in the world’s fastest-growing major economy, its chairman said.
India wants to emerge as a major refining hub supplying fuel to the global markets as Western companies are cutting crude processing capacities in favour of energy transition.
“We feel there is a big opportunity in refining sector. India’s primary energy demand itself is also going to increase three to four times as its economy expands,” G. Krishnakumar told Reuters in an interview.
India aspires to be a developed nation by 2047 with its GDP rising to $30 trillion from the current $3.8 trillion.
BPCL has started pre-project work including land purchase to build at least a 9 million metric ton per year (tpy) refinery and ethylene cracker in Andhra Pradesh, he said.
The project will have a 35% petrochemical intensity and could cost 900 billion-950 billion rupees ($10.56 billion-$11.14 billion).
The company operates three refineries in India with combined capacity of 35.3 million tpy. It also buys fuels from a 3 million tpy Numaligarh refinery in the northeast.
Krishnakumar said about 80% output from the proposed Andhra complex will be sold in southern India that houses petchem developers and automobile makers.
Indian refiners are raising petrochemical productions as the nation’s per capita consumption is set to rise with increased manufacturing.
BPCL is also exploring setting up a refinery in a joint venture with state-run exploration company Oil and Natural Gas Corp in northern Uttar Pradesh state, while pushing for clean energy goals, he said.
Refining expansion will help BPCL cut its dependence on fuel purchases from other companies, as it buys a fifth of 50 million tpy of refined fuels sold through its retails stations.
Krishnakumar said BPCL will aggressively bid for renewable projects tendered by the government and could acquire companies to meet its target of 10 Gigawatts clean energy projects by 2035.
It has announced a joint venture with Sembcorp to expand its renewable energy portfolio of 300 megawatts.
Krishnakumar hoped that the operations at the $20 billion Mozambique liquefied natural gas (LNG) project, led by France’s TotalEnergies, would start in the first quarter of 2025 with monetisation of gas in 2028-29.
BPCL along with other Indian companies hold 30% stake in Mozambique project.
($1 = 85.2540 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Nidhi Verma, Editing by Angus MacSwan)
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