Andhra Pradesh offers three sites for BPCL project

NEW DELHI: The Andhra Pradesh government has told the Centre that it can allot land at Machilipatnam, Ramayapatnam or Mulapeta in the state for Bharat Petroleum's (BPCL) proposed refinery-cum-petrochemicals complex, according to people familiar with the matter.

The N Chandrababu Naidu government in Andhra Pradesh is pushing for a new refinery as it can help boost economic activity and generate jobs in the state. BPCL is studying the offer for land and may soon zero in on one location, people said.

The company is considering building an integrated refinery-cum-petrochemicals complex of 9-12 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) capacity in Andhra Pradesh. Based on the refinery's configurations, a 9 mtpa capacity would require about 800-1,000 acres of land.


It's unclear how the state government plans to participate in the project and if it would grant land for free. States usually offer free land or tax concessions to make a refinery project viable. The cost of building a refinery varies widely with configurations and land costs.

Indian Oil plans to build a refinery-cum-petrochem project with a capacity of 9 mtpa at about Rs 33,000 crore at Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu. The company already possesses land for the project.

For the same capacity of 9 mtpa at Barmer in Rajasthan, Hindustan Petroleum (HPCL) is set to incur Rs 72,000 crore.