December 26, 2024 [State-owned Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) has approved plans to build a new refinery in Andhra Pradesh. In an exchange filing, the company said it will invest about Rs 6,100 crore in pre-project activities for the refinery.

BPCL’s board has granted approval to begin initial activities for setting up a greenfield refinery and petrochemical complex on the East Coast of India.

The pre-project activities will involve a range of crucial tasks, including initial studies, land identification and acquisition, preparation of a detailed feasibility report (DFR), environmental impact assessment (EIA), basic design engineering package, and front-end engineering design (FEED), the company said in the filing.

The refinery and petrochemical complex is expected to become one of the largest refineries on India’s East Coast, following the 15 MTPA Paradip refinery by Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) in Odisha and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation’s (HPCL) expanded Visakhapatnam refinery in Andhra Pradesh. The BPCL refinery is a part of the commitments made under the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act of 2014.

This development follows reports suggesting that Saudi Arabia is interested in investing in BPCL’s upcoming refinery as part of its broader strategy to expand energy footprint. In 2019, Saudi Arabia signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with India to invest $100 billion across sectors including agriculture, infrastructure, manufacturing, and energy. BPCL’s decision to expand its refinery capacity comes in response to a gap between its refinery throughput and sales. In fiscal 2023-24, BPCL’s refinery throughput was 39.9 MT, while its sales was at 51.04 MT.

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