Shri Ram Naik,
Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas has approved a proposal
to allocate 15 lakh tonnes of Ravva crude to Bongaigaon Refinery
& Petrochemicals Ltd. (BRPL) from the year 2003-04. This
will increase the availability of crude to the refineries in
North-East which have been facing difficulty of under utilisation
of their refining capacity of 7 million metric tonnes per annum
(MMTPA) as around 5 MMTPA crude has been available in North-East
at present.
"Coming after the
revision in royalty which would benefit oil producing States
like Assam, this decision would improve the financial viability
of North-East refineries. Considering the low sulphur characteristic
of Ravva crude, the current allocation to BRPL will also obviate
the immediate need for capital investment of about Rs. 500 crore
by BRPL to produce Euro-II fuels," said Shri Ram Naik
Shri Naik further
stated, "The refineries in North-East are of sub-economic size
and suffer from locational disadvantages. These refineries are
Indian Oil’s Digboi (0.65 MMTPA) and Guwahati (1.00 MMTPA),
IOC’s subsidiary BRPL (2.35 MMTPA) and BPCL’s subsidiary Numaligarh
Refinery Ltd. (3 MMTPA). In keeping with the government’s policy
to stimulate industrial development and to provide for socio-economic
development in North-East region, the refineries are being operated
despite being economically unviable."
