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The Rajasthan state government is speeding up approvals for setting up the Pachpadra refinery in Barmer district.
Speaking at an event to mark 10 years of Mangala oil field operations, Rajasthan Chief Minister, Ashok Gehlot said, “The delays in setting up the Rajasthan Refinery is causing losses to the state, companies and jobs. We have drawn up plans to set up an industrial complex in Pachpadra. This will also help set up ancillary industries.”
The HPCL Rajasthan Refinery Limited (HRRL) was incorporated on September 18, 2013, as a Joint Venture between Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) and the Government of Rajasthan with an equity participation of 74 per cent and 26 per cent respectively.
The project involves setting up of a Greenfield 9 million tonne per annum refinery cum petrochemical complex at Pachpadra in Barmer district. This project is expected to be mechanically completed within 4 years from the last date of receipt of all statutory approvals.
But not much progress was made since then and Prime Minister Narendra Modi re-laid the foundation stone of the refinery in January 2018. The move came just before the Rajasthan Assembly elections and Modi had announced that work on this refinery would be completed by 2022. “The state government is committed to complete the work on the Rajasthan refinery at the earliest. We hope the refinery to be ready as crude oil production is ramped up from the Barmer oil fields,” Gehlot said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi marks the commencement of work of Rajasthan Refinery, in Barmer on January 16, 2018.
Cairn Oil and Gas, which is part of the Vedanta Group, has drawn up plans to spend over $ 1.1 billion in coming 18 months to improve the crude oil production from the Mangla, Bhagyam and Aishwarya fields in Barmer through Alkaline Surfactant Polymer (ASP) enhanced oil recovery.
Mangala, Bhagyam and Aishwariya fields, the three major discoveries in the Rajasthan block, together have gross hydrocarbons in place of about 2.2 billion barrels of oil equivalent. In total, Cairn has planned investments worth $3.2 billion towards enhancing production from its existing fields, significantly in Rajasthan.
The current production from the Mangla, Bhagyam and Aishwarya fields is to the tune of 135-140 thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day (kboepd). Cairn Oil and Gas currently produces a fourth of India’s total domestic oil production and targets an immediate production of 300 kboepd by 2020-2021. The target by financial year 2021-22 is to have a production of 500 kboepd.
(The writer was in Barmer at the invitation of Cairn Oil and Gas, Vedanta Limited)
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