visakhapatnam: HPCL’s dependence on other refiners to drop by 15% after vizag unit expansion

Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited’s dependence on other refiners for supply of transportation fuels will reduce by 15% after the expansion of its Visakhapatnam refinery is completed this year.

The capacity of Visakhapatnam refinery will rise to 15 million tonnes a year from the current 8.5 million tonnes a year by June, HPCL Chairman Pushp Kumar Joshi said. The refinery will likely stabilize and start operating at full capacity by December, he added.

HPCL has far larger domestic network of fuel stations than its refineries can supply.

“We market double the products than we produce in refineries. The refinery will help reduce our dependence on others for sourcing,” Joshi said.

After the Visakhapatnam refinery begins operating at full capacity, the supply dependence on other refiners will reduce to about 35%.

HPCL is also expecting to complete work on five million tonne a year Chhara LNG terminal in Gujarat in two months. The terminal will, however, start operation only after the breakwater facility to anchor ships and the pipeline to evacuate gas are ready.