‘IOC to raise refining capacity by 25% to meet India’s oil needs’
New Delhi: State-owned Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) plans to raise oil refining capacity by a quarter to meet rising energy needs of India, the world’s fastest growing economy, its chairman Shrikant Madhav Vaidya said on Friday.
The firm, which has nine refineries to convert crude oil into fuels like petrol and diesel, 20,000 kilometers of pipelines to transport oil and fuel, 99 LPG bottling plants, 129 aviation fuel stations and over 61,000 customer touchpoints like petrol pumps and LPG agencies, is aiming to meet one-eighth of India’s energy needs by 2050, he said.
India’s oil demand is likely to surge from 5.4 million barrels per day in 2023 to 8.3 million bpd by 2050. “To meet this rise, we aim to increase our refining capacity from 70.25 million tonne per annum to 88 million tonne per annum, while scaling up both convention and non-conventional energy options,” he said addressing shareholders at the company’s annual general meeting. The nation’s largest oil firm is targeting to become a $1 trillion company by 2047, combining growth in traditional oil refining and fuel marketing with clean energy avenues like green hydrogen and EV charging.
The company will continue to invest in fossil fuels and new energy avenues to have a balanced portfolio that will help achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2046, Vaidya said.
Besides expanding oil refining capacity, it will invest in petrochemical units that will convert crude oil into value-added chemicals directly, while also increasing its focus on gas, biofuels and clean mobility.
IOC is investing over Rs 61,000 crore in setting up a mega petrochemical complex in Paradip, Odisha. “This and the other petrochemical projects will be a game changer for us,” he said.
The firm aims to enhance its renewable energy capacity to 31 GW by 2030, primarily through solar and wind projects. IOC has formed a joint venture with Israeli technology company Phinergy for aluminium-air batteries and with Panasonic Energy of Japan for advanced cell manufacturing of lithium-ion batteries in India.
On hydrogen, the firm is looking to convert half of its current hydrogen consumption to green by 2030.
