Chennai Petroleum Corporation Ltd (CPCL), a subsidiary of Indian Oil Corporation Ltd, expects to finalise the ₹25,000-crore Cauvery Basin Refinery (CBR) mega expansion in three-four months’ time.

The feasibility study is done and approvals are being sought. This will be a new 9-million tonnes per annum (mtpa) refinery. said Gautam Roy, Managing Director, CPCL, said on the sidelines of company’s annual general meeting here.

CBR is CPCL’s second refinery and it has over 600 acres, oil jetty and a port nearby. “In today’s context, land is the crucial part and it is readily available for us to take up the expansion,” he said.

CPCL will go in for debt equity in the ratio of 2:1 to fund the new refinery expansion project, he said.

Roy said CPCL would incur a capital expenditure of ₹845 crore this year for four-five ongoing projects.

Roy expressed optimism that CPCL will wipe out the accumulated losses of ₹1,000 crore in the next two years.

Fuel price hike

Sanjiv Singh, Chairman, IOC, said the fuel price spike has been caused by increase in global fuel prices and fluctuation in crude prices.

He told Business Line prices and of petrol and diesel have been on the increase over the past two-three weeks.

Price of non-branded petrol has gradually increased from ₹67 per litre in Chennai on August 2 to ₹71 now and diesel increased to ₹60 from ₹58 during this period.

If there is a holiday season in some countries, the prices go up. In winter season also, prices go up as demand surges due to heating requirements.

“This is how the deregulated market works. Not many countries can implement daily revision mechanism. We do it transparently with over 55,000 retail outlets,” Singh said.

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