NRI steel tycoon L N Mittal has finally become a player in his home country's oil sector. His joint venture with state-run Hindustan Petroleum started full operation of its first refinery at Bathinda, Punjab, on Thursday. The refinery has a capacity of processing nine million tonne of crude a year (180,000 barrels per day) and built by HPCL-Mittal Energy Ltd. Mittal has invested in the venture through Mittal Energy Investment Pte Ltd, Singapore. The starting of the refinery's operations comes after Mittal's earlier two attempts to carve out a space in the Indian oil industry failed. His venture with HPCL for a petrochem hub at Vizag failed to go beyond preliminary study. His oil shipping venture with state-run explorer ONGC never took off, while another tie-up with ONGC for acquisition of overseas acquisitions fizzled out, while trying to access fields in Kazakhstan. For HPCL, the refinery is expected to improve the availability of green fuels in the northern region. It would also give the refinery an advantage in exporting to Pakistan when Islamabad opens its gates - if at all. The refinery's proximity to Pakistan will allow HPCL-Mittal to export fuels through pipeline and offer more discounts that its rivals. The refinery is adding to India's oil refining capacity, which is to rise by 15% to 214 million tonnes a year by the end of current fiscal.
No comments:
Post a Comment