IOC to invest up to Rs1.8 trillion across verticals over 6 years

Indian Oil Corporation on Wednesday announced plans to invest up to Rs1.80 trillion across verticals in the next six years.

State-run IOC also said it is in talks with foreign entities to co-invest in these projects, which include setting up a mega refinery in coastal Maharashtra.

"In the next six years, we need to spend Rs1.70-1.80 trillion on refinery expansions, new petrochemical projects which are coming up and expenditure being incurred on natural gas, besides some exploration blocks that we are actively looking at," IOC chairman B Ashok told reporters in New Delhi.

He further said about Rs50,000 crore will be invested in setting up refining capacity where it plans to add at least 24 million tonnes per annum over the next five years, followed closely by marketing infrastructure including new plants, new terminals, LPG import infrastructure and pipelines.

Besides this, it has also earmarked sums for investments in petrochemicals and natural gas, he said.

The company will be investing Rs15,000 crore in the current fiscal and will accelerate to over Rs25,000 crore each over the next two fiscals, Ashok said, adding it has budgeted for a Rs72,000 crore investment over the next three years.

Ashok said the ambitious project to set up the largest refinery project in the country in coastal Maharashtra is on and the state government has shown six potential sites where it can come up.

IOC, which is taking leadership in the project that is estimated to cost Rs1.76 trillion, will hold a 50 per cent stake in the refinery while the remaining will be split evenly between its sister companies Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) and Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL).

The company is also in talks with international investors for participating in the ambitious project, Ashok said, adding that the three domestic partners will dilute their stake equally as and when such an investor comes in.