On Jan 29^th, the Sate-owned Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. (IOCL) gave a green signal to the plan of setting up a 9 million metric tonne per annum (MMTPA) refinery at Nagapattinam, Tamil Nadu at an investment of about INR 3,15,000 million.

The 9 MMTPA refinery will be a joint venture (JV) between the Chennai Petroleum Corporation Ltd (CPCL) and IOCL with both the companies together holding 50 per cent stake (about 25 percent stake each) while the remaining stake will be held by the strategic investors.

The refinery would house a Polypropylene (PP) unit initially and crude oil processing facility. As per the company officials, the project is likely to get commissioned within the next 48 months after receiving the Environmental Clearance for the project and mandatory approvals by MOEF&CC. The CPCL board had cleared the proposal and got approval from the Union Environment Ministry's Expert Appraisal Committee in September last year.

The 650 acres of land required for the project is available with the company while the company is in process of acquiring the remaining land of 615 acres. It is being projected that the project would create jobs for 25,000 people and around 80 percent of construction materials will be sourced indigenously.

As per ChemAnalyst,” The move has been in accord with the country’s skyrocketing fuel demand. India’s petrol demand nearly doubled in the fourth quarter compared to what it was last year. Moreover, the project is in line with the expected growth in the consumption of petroleum products in southern India.”