BP eyes Cals for crude oil supply to Kolkata refinery

New Delhi, Mar 19 (UNI) Global energy major BP today said it plans to tie up with Spice Energy-promoted Cals Ltd to supply crude oil to its one-billion-dollar proposed refinery near Kolkata, which requires 2.5 million tonnes of heavy crude and a similar supply of light crude.

BP said it plans to sign an offtake agreement for the two products from the Cals which is planning to export petrol and diesel produced in this Euro-4 compliant refinery, besides producing ATF, LPG and Petco for the domestic market, a statement said.

The refinery will become West Bengal's second largest oil refinery after the Indian Oil Corporation's (IOC) existing one in Haldia.

Spice Energy-promoted firm also plans to import a 90,000-barrel-per-day refinery from Germany, which will be shipped to Haldia for reconstruction.

Cals plans to come up by next year and has hired the United Kingdom refinery engineers KBC to upgrade the plant, to be able to refine lower-quality crude oil.

To fund the project, Cals Ltd has raised 200 millon dollars through issuing a global depository receipt on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange in November, attracting investments from Dubai Investment Group, part of Dubai Holding, and London's RP Capital.

It also plans raise 100-200 million dollars from a strategic investor.

Cals has appointed former IOC Chairman M S Ramachandran as the Chairman of the Board. Some senior managers from Reliance Petroleum Ltd (RPL) and Essar have also joined the company in the run-up to the implementation of the project.

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