Saudi Aramco and Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (Adnoc) are still committed to investing in the planned $44 billion west coast refinery-cum-petrochemical project, the Chairman of India’s Indian Oil Corp (IOC) said on Thursday.
Saudi Aramco’s talks to buy a 20% stake in Reliance Industries Ltd’s oil-to-chemical business for $15 billion, coupled with a crash in oil prices, slowing down of fuel demand, and land issues facing the west coast project had led to speculations of waning interest of the world’s largest oil exporter in the project.
“Both Adnoc and Saudi Aramco are still committed to the investments in the project,” Indian Oil Corp (IOC) Chairman Shrikant Madhav Vaidya said at Energy Intelligence Forum 2020.
State-owned IOC, Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) together with Saudi Aramco and Adnoc plan to set up a 60 million tonnes refinery-cum-petrochemical complex on Maharashtra coast.
Land acquisition has led to delay in the project, but once the issue is sorted out, the project is going to come up with investments from Aramco and Adnoc, he said.
“We are certain and confident that the country needs this refinery to come up because of the growth the country is going to see in fuel demand in the future,” Vaidya added.
Aramco and Adnoc are to hold 50% in the project, while IOC has a 25% stake. The remaining 25% is split equally between BPCL and HPCL.
Preliminary estimations suggest the complex could cost as much as $70 billion.
Aramco and Adnoc see themselves as principal oil suppliers to the west coast refinery. In fact, talks of Aramco picking up a 20% stake in Reliance”s O2C business were conditioned on it supplying 500,000 bpd.