NEW DELHI, INDIA: HPCL-Mittal Energy (HMEL), a joint venture of state-owned Hindustan Petroleum Corporation and steel czar Lakshmi Mittal, recently announced commissioning of $4 billion refinery at Bathinda in Punjab. The 9 million tonne a year (180,000 barrels per day) Guru Gobind Singh Refinery at Phullokari, Bathinda has become fully operational and started commercial production of fuel, said HMEL.
The GGSR refinery began refining crude oil in August 2011 and has now achieved commissioning of the entire project. “The joint venture has established that Public Private Partnership models can succeed. The venture has leveraged strengths of each partner and combined best practices from both sectors. To build a world class asset, we brought leading practices in project management, decision making and corporate governance to the table, executing the project on schedule,” said Mittal.
“GGSR has come up in record time. This refinery will help in meeting the growing Indian demand and more particularly help in bridging the large demand-supply mismatch of petroleum products faced in the northern region of the country,” said S Roy Choudhury, Chairman, HMEL.
HPCL and Mittal Energy Investment Pte Ltd, Singapore (Lakshmi N Mittal Group company) hold 49 per cent stake each in HEML while the remaining 2 per cent interest is held by financial institutions. The unit had achieved the first liquid sales in December with dispatch of kerosene and the first solid sales last month with sale of petroleum coke. The refinery has high Nelson Complexity Index which will enable maximising value added products even from heavy/sour crudes.
© WOC News