The Indian oil company Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) will sell its 61.65% stake in Numaligarh Refinery Ltd (NRL), the operator of the 3 Mt/year (60,000 bbl/d) Numaligarh refinery in Assam (eastern India) to a consortium of IndianOil, Engineers India and the state government of Assam. The transaction is subject to the approval from BPCL's shareholders.
The Numaligarh refinery, located at Golaghat District, was commissioned in 2000 to process local crude oil. NRL plans to expand the refinery by 6 Mt/year (90,000 bbl/d) by 2024. In February 2021, BPCL selected Axens to supply advanced technologies in gasoline block for its Numaligarh Refinery Expansion Project (NREP). The expansion project aims at meeting the growing demand for petroleum products in northeastern India and enable the export of oil products to Myanmar, Bhutan, and Bangladesh.