India aborts plans for new refinery
India has aborted plans to build a major refinery and petrochemicals complex in the south of the country. State-controlled Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd. (HPCL) announced the halt of its plans to build a 300,000 barrel per day (bpd) project in the southern city of Visakhapatnam due to a lack of investment. Two of the project’s key partners, French industry giant Total and India’s Mittal Investments have both decided to end their interest in the venture. The move comes as a surprise given the strong prospects for India’s downstream sector. Total was the most recent partner to pull out of the planned $10 billion Visakhapatnam project, when it chose to do so back in September last year. Ten months prior to Total’s decision, Mittal Investments pulled out. In an attempt to reverse this trend, HPCL attempted to sign up Saudi Aramco as a strategic partner, but these attempts also failed. (April 19, 2010)