IOC to invest in Haldia

Indian Oil Corp. (IOC) signed a memorandum of agreement (MoA) in September with the Bengal government to become the anchor investor of the 10,000 acre chemical special economic zone (SEZ) in Haldia. IOC will set up a 15-million-ton refinery at a cost Rs 15,000 crores (US$3.31 billion) at the SEZ. However, IOC believes a deep-sea port capable of handling large crude carriers is essential to make the refinery viable. Big ships cannot dock at the existing port in Haldia because the Haldi river at the port is not sufficiently deep to permit navigation. To overcome the problem, IOC is setting up a pipeline from Paradip to transport crude to its existing refinery in Haldia. However, IOC feels the sheer scale of operations in the proposed SEZ rules out the possibility of ferrying crude from Paradip.  (September 28, 2006)