Indian Oil Corp (IOC) plans to build a 180,000 bbl/d (9 Mt/year) refinery worth INR 315bn (US$4.3bn) in Nagapattinam, in Tamil Nadu (southern India). The refinery project would be developed by a joint venture of IOC (25%), Chennai Petroleum Corp. Ltd. (CPCL, 25%) and strategic and financial investors (50%) on land owned by CPCL. IOC bets on increased economic activity and on the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine that are expected to raise fuel demand. Its refineries are currently operating at full capacity.
India aims to nearly double its oil refining capacity in the next five years, from 260 Mt/year to 450-500 Mt/year. The refining capacity of the country amounted to 5.2 mb/d (260 Mt/year) in early 2020 across 21 refineries, including 15 with a capacity over 100,000 bbl/d (5 Mt/year). The previous objective was to reach this level by 2030 for a total investment of around US$300bn over the next 10 years.