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AsianOil SOUTH ASIA AsianOil
India remains committed
to mega-refinery
PROJECTS & INDIAN Minister of Petroleum and Natural
COMPANIES Gas Dharmendra Pradhan has said plans for the
country’s largest refinery at Ratnagiri will not
be downsized, though he has admitted that the
timetable has been pushed back.
Speaking at the Energy Intelligence Forum
on October 13, Pradhan said the government
did not intend to rethink the size of 1.2mn barrel
per day (bpd) greenfield integrated refinery and
petrochemical complex in Ratnagiri or the pro-
ject partners. Energy demand
Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (ADNOC) and
Saudi Aramco signed a framework agreement in will be normal
2018 to develop the facility with state-run Indian within the next
Oil Corp. (IOC), Hindustan Petroleum Corpo- Pradhan said while coronavirus (COVID-
ration Ltd (HPCL) and Bharat Petroleum Cor- 19) had had a significant impact on energy con- few quarters.
poration Ltd (BPCL). Land acquisition issues sumption, the country was moving in the “right
have, however, prevented construction from direction”. He said: “Energy demand will be nor- Things are on the
starting. mal within the next few quarters. Things are on
Pradhan admitted that this project was facing the right track.” right track
some “local issues”, but said he hoped they would The minister said that despite “some hiccups”
be resolved with the Maharashtra State govern- in energy demand from April to August, the gov-
ment soon. ernment would “not deviate in its energy invest-
“We’re confident that at a rescheduled time, ment plans”.
we’re very much keen to develop the Ratnagiri The pandemic has derailed the government’s
refinery,” Pradhan said. plans to divest its 52.98% stake sale in state-run
The refinery is expected to be commissioned BPCL, but Pradhan said the government still
in 2025, S&P Global Platts quoted unnamed intended to follow through on the sale.
sources as saying this week. “But we all will appreciate, looking into the
Commenting on the country’s refining net worth and into the size, the government is
capacity, which is currently around 250mn treading very cautiously on how to offload [the
tonnes (5mn bpd), the minister said: “In the stakes] through a proper process,” he said. “We
next decade we want to add another minimum are committed to offload our state-owned oil
100mn tonnes [2mn bpd]. By 2030, we must companies. We want to take a more professional
have 350mn tonnes [7mn bpd] of refining capac- approach. Government has no business to be in
ity [to meet domestic demand].” the business.”
SOUTHEAST ASIA
Indonesia spurs contractors
to lift production
POLICY INDONESIA’S upstream regulator SKK Migas across 13 blocks. “SKK Migas and contractors
has said it is working with several contractors are reviewing the new schedule, adjusted for the
with licences due to expire in 2022 to help them COVID-19 pandemic and oil prices,” Indone-
meet their work commitments despite the coro- sian language media outlet Kontan quoted her
navirus (COVID-19) pandemic. as saying on October 9.
The acting head of SKK Migas’ programme Kontan, siting SKK Migas data, said the con-
and communication division, Susana Kurni- tractors’ exploration commitments amounted
asih, said the health crisis had delayed explo- to $782.7mn, with the money earmarked for 41
ration and enhance oil recovery (EOR) work geophysical and geological (G&G) studies and
P4 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 41 15•October•2020
