Numaligarh Refinery’s (NRL) cost of its capacity expansion project has escalated by Rs 5,432 crore to Rs 28,026 crore due to the adoption of advanced technology.
In an official release, the Union Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas has already approved the revised project cost for increasing capacity from three million tpa to nine million tpa.
With the adoption of state-of-the-art technology in this configuration and the addition of extremely complex schemes like residue hydrocracking, the refinery will be able to process heavier crude oil and maximize production of distillates.
This adoption of technology led to an increase in the project cost from Rs 22,594 crore to Rs 28,026 crore.
The initial planned configuration of the upcoming six million tpa unit has been improved to make it petrochemical ready, focusing on upgradation of refinery residue by using new technology.
The company had started the expansion project in 2019 by announcing the single-largest investment in the northeast and completing the works in four years by around 2023.
The Numaligarh Refinery Expansion Project includes a 1,398 km crude oil pipeline of nine million tpa from Odisha's Paradip to Numaligarh and a 654 km product pipeline of six million tpa from Numaligarh to West Bengal's Siliguri.
In NRL, Oil India owns a 72.15 percent stake, while the Assam government and Engineers India have 23.48 percent and 4.37 percent holding, respectively.