Behuria: Funds boost

Mumbai, Sept. 24: The Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) is planning to invest Rs 43,250 crore in capacity expansion over the next five years.

The funds will be used mainly to scale up annual refining capacity to about 80 million tonnes by 2011-12.

In the next five years, the public sector unit will set up refineries and petrochemical plants and scout for acquisitions abroad.

The company has drawn up a capital expenditure plan of Rs 5,500 crore for this fiscal.

In the last fiscal, the IOC sold 53.4 million tonnes of petroleum products compared with 50.6mt in the previous year. This includes sales of the IBP, the Calcutta-based oil marketer that was taken over by the IOC.

Natural gas sales went up to 1.48mt from 1.3mt in the previous year and product exports to 3.13mt from 2.09mt in the previous year.

IOC chairman Sarthak Behuria said capacity utilisation at the seven refineries of the company was 98 per cent. The company reported a throughput of 44mt, an increase of 14 per cent over the previous year.

There was also a marked improvement in distillate yields and energy conservation, Behuria said.

In transport, the government has given permanent approval to the IOC to manage its own fleet of ships, allowing the company to save on freight costs.

Behuria said the company had acquired a stake in a Nigerian oil block and two blocks in Yemen.

The government has awarded the company two blocks under its new exploration and licencing policy.

The IOC owns 10 out of the country’s 19 refineries and accounts for a 40.4 per cent share of national refining capacity. Behuria said the naphtha cracker project at Panipat in Haryana was slated to be commissioned in 2009.

An integrated refinery-cum-petrochemicals complex is also coming up at Paradip in Orissa which will further enhance the IOC’s downstream capabilities, Behuria said.

“IOC is pursuing upstream integration through exploration and production activities both within and outside the country,” Behuria said.