Bhatinda, Paradip, Bina refinaries proceeding well: Deora

New Delhi, Dec 12 (UNI) Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Murli Deora today said Bhatinda, Paradip and Bina refineries are at an advanced stage of completion, scheduled for the year 2010 at an outlay of Rs 20,000 crore.

''Three major grassroots refineries are at various stages of progress at Bhatinda in Punjab, Paradip in Orissa and Bina in Madhya Pradesh, which are being developed by HPCL, IOC and BPCL respectively,'' Mr Deora said at a Consultative Committee meeting of his ministry here.

Netherlands-based consultancy organisation, Shell Global Solutions International, has conducted benchmarking exercise of the refineries and follow-up projects.

''These refineries would add 30 MMTPA (million metric tonnes per annum) by the end of 2010-11,'' the minister said, adding that private sector is also planning new refineries with a capacity of 35 MMTPA.

Mr Deora said public sector units (PSUs) would further make capacity addition of 53 MMTPA by the end of the Eleventh Five Year Plan which comes to be about 50 per cent of their present capacity.

''The refinery capacity in the country is expected to go up to about 240 MMTPA during the 11th Plan which implies an additional capacity of about 92 MMT,'' the minister said.

Commenting on the LNG agreement with Iran, Mr Deora said the ministerial level talks would likely to be held early next year, adding that the country is also keeping a tab on the developments on Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan pipeline project.

Under the sixth round of New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP-4) launched on February, 2006, the government has received 165 bids from 52 blocks, he said, adding that the entire process would take about four months for bid evaluation, which is done by DGH, and the signing of contracts, which are expected in January, 2007.

Mr Deora said the ministry continues with its efforts to acquire equity in oil and gas refineries abroad.

He said there has been a need to shore up the supply of LNG/gas from abroad till domestic gas from NELP fields and from KG basin becomes available.

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