State-owned refiner Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) has approved to scale up the expansion project at its Koyali refinery in Vadodara, Gujarat. The expansion plans included increasing refining capacity from 13.7 million tons/year to 18 million tons/year. However, the company approved an addition of a 500,000 tons/year of polypropylene production capacity and 235,000 tons/year of lube oil base stock capacity at the complex.
The scale-up is part of IOCL’s strategy to produce a building block for the future production of specialty chemicals. The ₹178.25-billion ($2.4-billion) expansion project is also expected to strengthen the site’s energy performance. After the upgrade, IOCL will have a close integration with downstream petrochemical capacities, which give the company greater flexibility to fend off future supply and demand disruptions. Last year, IOCL upgraded the Gujarat refinery that enabled it to produce Bharat Stage (BS) 6 fuels, equivalent to Euro 6-quality.
