By Bizodisha Bureua, Bhubaneswar, October 13, 2015 : The much awaited Rs 34,555 crore Paradip Refinery Project will be commissioned very soon, according to the Indian Oil Corporation Ltd [IOCL] chairman, B Ashok.

“We have given the State government a full brief on the status of the project and we are very shortly going to commission the project for commercial production. Some of the things that we have done in the project is world-scale and this refinery is the largest in the world in some sense,” Ashok said on Tuesday.

The Odisha government had signed a MOU with IOCL in 2004 for establishment of a 9 MMTPA oil refinery. However, later IOCL has enhanced the capacity of the refinery to 15 MMTPA. The IOCL officials mentioned that the refinery is expected to be commissioned in 2016.

Ashok also met the Odisha chief secretary G.C. Pati to discuss about the progress of the project. The meeting, attended by other top bureaucrats, laid down a road map for establishment of downstream petrochemical complex and to renegotiate the fiscal incentives under a fresh MOU in mutual interest of the State and Pradeep Refinery Project.

In view of the delay in commissioning of the project as per the MOU, the officials felt the need for review of the tax and regulatory regime in petroleum sector. Besides, it felt the necessity of setting up a downstream petrochemical complex for creation of investment and employment opportunities.

It was also decided to constitute a working group involving state government and IOCL to lay lay down a road map for establishment of the downstream petro chemical complex and the role of IOCL as Anchor Tenant for PCPIR and to review the fiscal incentives under a fresh MOU in mutual interest of the State and Paradi
p Refinery Project.

The Paradip refinery project will be IOC’s 8th refinery in the country and is expected to help the company scale
up its refining capacity to 69.2 million tonnes from the current 54.2 million tonnes per annum.