HPCL Rajasthan Refinery Project will be fully functional by 2024: Petroleum minister

Barmer (Rajasthan) [India], February 21 (ANI): Union Petroleum Minister Hardeep Puri on Tuesday said the HPPCL Rajasthan Refinery (HRRL) project will be ready by January 2024 and will be fully functional by 2024. The petroleum minister said that the ministry will request Prime Minister Narendra Modi to inaugurate the refinery in January 2024.

Addressing a press conference in Barmer on Tuesday, Hardeep Puri said, “Barmer refinery will be the ‘Jewel of the Desert’, bringing jobs, opportunities and joy to the people of Rajasthan, as per the Atmanirbhar Bharat and Make in India vision of PM Modi.” On the cost of the project, the petroleum minister said, “The project cost was Rs 43,000 crore in 2018 and now, it has gone up to Rs 72,000 due to cost escalation.”

“Rajasthan government has a 26 per cent stake in this refinery. Due to the price escalation, there is an extra burden of Rs 2,500 crore,” the minister said, adding, “We have two options: We are asking the state government to pay Rs 2,500 crore and hope for a solution. The next option is that the Centre would have to raise its stake to 84 per cent by paying an extra of Rs 2,500 crore. That will reduce the state government’s from 26 per cent to 16 per cent.”

He said the Centre has 74 per cent stake while Rajasthan has 26 per cent stake in the refinery at Barmer. “This refinery will employ 35,000 workers while it will be able to generate over 1-lakh direct and indirect employment,” he added.
Puri said, “A school on the premises of the refinery will be operational by December 2023 with the expenditure of Rs 30 crore and a hospital will be operational inside the refinery by December 23.”

The minister also said this refinery would bring down India’s import bill by Rs 26000 crore. “India is the fourth largest refiners of the world after the US, Russia, China. We have set the target of 450 mmtpa. India currently had 250 mmtpa capacity,” the minister said, adding, “When we will achieve the 450-mmtpa target and India will become the third largest refiners of the world.”

The greenfield refinery-cum-petrochemical complex at Barmer, Rajasthan, is being set up by a joint venture company HPCL Rajasthan Refinery (HRRL) of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) and the government of Rajasthan having a stake of 74 per cent and 26 per cent, respectively. The capacity of the complex is 9 million metric tonnes per annum (MMTPA), which includes 2.4 MMTPA of Petrochemical products.

The project received government’s approval on October 9, 2017. The work commencement ceremony was carried out by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 16, 2018. Rajasthan refinery project envisages to process imported crude as well as Rajasthan crude. The design crude mix is 1.5 MMTPA of Rajasthan crude and 7.5 MMTPA imported crude. The complex is also designed to process 9 MMTPA imported crude. The project broadly comprises of following process units/ facilities.