Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) has firmed up plans to pump in over Rs 26 billion in setting up several greenfield units and expanding its facilities across the northeast over the next few years, a senior company official said.
The board of Indian Oil has already approved various new projects, while some are in the process of getting the nod, with the leading energy firm in talks with the local governments in Meghalaya, Mizoram and Manipur to finalize land parcels for the greenfield units.
"Northeast is one of the most important regions for Indian Oil and much focus is given here by the top management. We have planned to augment our operations by enhancing refining as well as petroleum, oil and lubricant (POL) storage capacities," said Indian Oil's Executive Director (Indian Oil-AOD) Ganesan Ramesh.
The company is at present carrying out nearly a dozen projects, both greenfield and brownfield, across the region, entailing a total investment of Rs 26.12 billion, he said.
"We have a major project coming up in the POL segment -- a greenfield depot at Sekerkote in Tripura at an investment of Rs 6.56 billion," Ramesh said.
Another project, for which the board has given its nod, is the expansion of the Betkuchi POL depot in Guwahati at a cost of Rs 2.77 billion.
IOC plans to increase the storage intake to 54,000 kilolitres from the existing 25,000 KL, install new fire water tanks and other facilities. It has already acquired an additional 10.67 acres of land to expand the Betkuchi plant.
"Indian Oil has plans for capacity expansion of its refineries at Guwahati and Digboi with project costs of Rs 4.12 billion and Rs 7.68 billion, respectively. Expansion of the Bongaigaon refinery is also envisaged under the North East Hydrocarbon Vision 2030, and currently land acquisition process is under progress," the official said.
He said the company has decided to revamp the Dimapur depot in Nagaland, and the board approval is in the process for an estimated expenditure of Rs 2.31 billion.
"Land is being finalized for setting up of greenfield POL depots at Umran in Meghalaya and Sihhmui in Mizoram to provide fuel security for these states. We are also in talks with the Manipur government for a wagon receipt facility at our Imphal depot," Ramesh said.
In order to ramp up the LPG bottling infrastructure in all the northeastern states, the PSU major has lined up a few projects, he said.
"A new 30 TMTPA (thousand metric tonnes per annum) LPG bottling plant is being set up at Umiam, Meghalaya at an approved cost of Rs 755.4 million. There is another plan for a new 30 TMTPA bottling plant in Mualkhang, Mizoram at an estimated cost of Rs 1.93 billion," Ramesh said.
IOC has a total bottling capacity of 692 TMTPA across its 10 LPG plants in the northeast. It has 871 distributors with 9.1 million active customers out of the total LPG customer base of 11.2 million in the region, transforming it into 81.2 percent of the total connections.
In the northeast, Indian Oil is the market leader in the POL segment with the highest market share of 64.4 per cent in petrol and 64.5 percent in diesel, Ramesh said.
It has a robust marketing infrastructure with around 1,427 retail outlets and 467 superior kerosene oil (SKO) dealerships, which are supported by 10 bulk storage depots or terminals, he added.
