Butola says Karnataka refinery still on the drawing board

Indian Oil Corp. is considering building a refinery in Karnataka on the the western coast of India by 2017 to capture a potential supply gap during that time, said IOC Chairman R.S. Butola in an interview with Business Standard. The refinery will have a capacity of 15 to 18 million tons per year. A coastal refinery will give IOC two advantages, he said, by using cheaper, high-sulfur crude oil and at 18 million tons, the scale of the refinery will be competitive. “This is on the drawing board right now and could be dropped as well. But we understand that there will be a surplus for sometime between 2012 and 2017. If we can make it operational during 2017-18, we will be able to capture the gap in supply,” said Butola. (June 10, 2011)