After years of uncertainty, the six-million-tonne refinery project of Nagarjuna Oil Corporation Ltd (NOCL) at Cuddalore in Tamil Nadu is set to take off in a big way. Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi will lay the foundation stone for the Rs 5,000-crore project in a next few days, said S Ramasundaram, chairman & managing director of Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (Tidco), a state undertaking with a 5% stake in the project.
?We expect the project will be completed in the next 30 to 33 months,? Ramasundaram said. According to him, the project will have a debt-equity ratio of 2:1.
KS Raju-owned Nagarjuna group will have a 51% stake in the project. The Tatas will have a 30% stake. Tidco will have a 5% stake in this project. Cuddalore Port Private Ltd will have 10% stake and the rest will go to a few select companies, he pointed out.
The project, years behind schedule, had faced various hurdles and the delay has pushed up the project cost sizeably. It is learnt that an IDBI-led consortium of banks would take care of the debt portion. The project has achieved the financial closure recently.
The project will have a similar capacity in its second phase. ?We are planning to have a one more 6-million-tonne capacity in the second phase and will work out the details on the same later,? Ramasundaram said.
According to sources, NOCL is expected to procure crude for the refinery from British Petroleum while equipment will come from the dismantled Mobil refinery in Germany. The refinery has been given the status of `mega project? and is expected to get some concessions, sources added.
Tamil Nadu plans petro zone
Anticipating the Cuddalore refinery project?s take-off, the Tamil Nadu government plans to set up a 250-sq km petrochemical zone under the Central government?s Petroleum, Chemical and Petrochemical Investment Region (PCPIR) scheme in the near future, said S Ramasundaram, CMD of Tidco. He said taking Cuddalore refinery as a lead point, the state is planning to create a mega petrochemical zone on the lines of Andhra Pradesh on the Cuddalore, Nagapattinam, Karaikkal, Bhuvanagiri stretch.
