Indian Oil to invest Rs 1300 crore into green initiatives in West Bengal (original) (raw)

NEW DELHI: State-run oil marketing company Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has lined up investments worth Rs 1,300 crore over the next two years to be made in the state of West Bengal, with a majority of the funds to be used for green initiatives.

The investments will be in various fields including the Bharat Stage-VI compliance of Indian Oil Corporation's Haldia refinery, unveiling diesel emission additives, new retail outlets, ethanol tankers and a Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) bottling plant.

Pritish Bharat, executive director of Indian Oil Corporation, said that from April 1, 2020, the retailer will sell only BS VI-compliant fuel (both petrol and diesel) from all their outlets in the state ensuring lower sulphur emission. This fuel will have a sulphur content of 10 PPM compared to 50PPM in BS-IV petrol. “First BS-VI fuel supply has already been made from IOC’s Mathura terminal,” he pointed out.

Bharat also said that for BS-IV diesel engines, IOC has come out with diesel emission additive which, once fitted with the engine, will be compliant with BS-VI norms and would be able to use BS-VI diesel. IOC is also setting up a diesel exhaust fluid plant to manufacture this diesel emission additive in Budge Budge with an investment of Rs 150 crore.

Meanwhile, IOC is investing over Rs 500 crore in its Haldia refinery for switching production line from BS IV to BS VI. The company is also augmenting its biofuel and ethanol capacities across its terminals in Bengal by around 5,000 kilolitres within a year. This would involve an investment of around Rs 200 crore.
Further, Indian Oil is planning to commission 100 retail outlets in the state by 2019-20 at an estimated investment of Rs 100 crore from its current tally of 1,200. “All the new outlets will be company-owned-dealer-operated (CODO),” Bharat added. IOC has 40 per cent CODO outlets in the state and the remaining 60 per cent are dealer-owned-dealer-operated.

In the pipeline is a new Indane bottling plant at Kharagpur by March 2021 at an investment of Rs 163 crore. “With the recent Ujjwala drives, LPG penetration in Bengal has moved up to 93.9 per cent, up 6 per cent since last year, propelling the state towards cleaner fuel and healthier kitchens,” said Bharat.