By Sumit Khanna and Nidhi Verma
VADODARA/NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Indian Oil Corp, the country’s top refiner, plans to operate its Gujarat refinery in western India at an expanded capacity of 360,000 barrels per day (bpd) by mid-2026, executive director Biplob Biswas said on Wednesday.
India is expanding its crude refining capacity to meet rising local demand for fuel.
IOC is revamping one of the five crude units at the 274,000 bpd refinery in Gujarat to raise overall capacity by 86,000 bpd.
“Our expansion is on track for completion by June-July of next year… The project will be completed in two phases,” Biswas said during a press conference.
The refinery expansion will cost 178.25 billion rupees ($2.09 billion), he said.
During the first phase of the expansion, the company will shut down the crude unit and some secondary units for upgrade. The shutdown is expected to be complete by June or July this year.
Biswas said the company expects to set up more secondary units, including petrochemical and lube projects, early next year as part of the expansion project and will operate the refinery at higher capacity by the middle of next year.
($1 = 85.3760 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Nidhi Verma; Editing by Rachna Uppal)
