NRL charts Rs 500-600 cr upgradation plan

NEW DELHI: BPCL subsidiary, Numaligarh Refinery Ltd (NRL) has charted a Rs 500-600 crore upgradation plan, which is expected to be completed by 2010.

"We are investing Rs 500-600 crore for upgrading our facilities," NRL Managing Director B K Das said here today.

He said once the expansion is complete, the company would be able to process all its crude supplies for producing Euro-III compliant fuel. "At present we are able to process only 90 per cent of our supplies," he said.

Das said the company is also talking to Assam Gas Company for picking up equity stake in the Duliajan-Numaligarh pipeline, which supplies natural gas to the NRL refinery.

The 200-km Duliajan-Numaligarh pipeline with a capacity of one million metric standard cubic metre per day caters to industrial/commercial units between Duliajan and Numaligarh.

"We are talking to Assam Gas Company for picking up a 40 per cent stake, which would amount to Rs 140 crore," Das said.

NRL, suffering from low capacity utilisation, is set to end the year with production lower than the targeted 2.5 million tonnes, he said.

Although NRL has a capacity to refine three million tonne of light sweet Assam crude, it has never been able to run to full capacity due to paucity of crude oil.

Das said NRL would finish the current financial year with a gross refining margin of around three dollars a barrel.

On the company's overseas plans, Das said the company has approached the Bangladesh Government to sell high speed diesel in the country. "However, nothing has concretised as of now as there is a caretaker government in Bangladesh," he said.

The company also plans to set up an oil depot in Siliguri at an expenditure of Rs 150 crore.