New BPCL refinery nears completion

Ashok Sinha, chairman of India’s Bharat Petroleum Corp. (BPCL), announced that BPCL’s new refinery in Bina, Madhya Pradesh is 80% complete, and will be commissioned by the end of 2009. Bharat Petroleum is building the refinery through Bharat Oman Refineries Ltd., a joint venture with Oman Oil Co., at an estimated cost of 104 billion rupees (US$2.17 billion). The refinery project includes a facility at Vadinar in the western state of Gujarat to import and store crude oil, and is expected to have a capacity of six million tons per annum. (January 13, 2009)