Cost Of Refinery Project With Aramco To Rise, Says Dharmendra Pradhan

The country's planned giant refinery and petrochemical project, which is being built with Saudi Aramco and Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC), will cost more than the originally planned $45 billion, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Tuesday.

The 1.2 million barrels-per-day (bpd) giant coastal project is part of government's plans to raise its refining capacity by 77 per cent to 8.8 million bpd by 2030. It is being built at Roha, around 100 km south of Mumbai.

"The primary plan was around $45 billion, it will be more than that," Dharmendra Pradhan told reporters at the World Energy Congress in Abu Dhabi, declining to say by how much.

Sources told Reuters last month that government had increased the cost estimate of the project by more than 36 per cent after protests by farmers forced its relocation.

The project is expected to cost $60 billion, sources told Reuters at the time, but is still expected to be commissioned in 2025.

Mr Pradhan confirmed the commissioning date and said other issues are progressing, without elaborating.

Global oil producers are vying to gain entry into India to establish a stable outlet for their output and to earn profit from the South Asian nation's strong gasoline and petrochemical demand prospects due to the rising disposable income of its 1.3 billion population.