State refiners are investing over Rs 4,478 crore in upgrading facilities to produce cleaner fuel, Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dinsha Patel said on Thursday.
As part of fuel quality upgradation project, the capacity of Mumbai refinery of Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd will be enhanced to 7.9 million tons from existing 5.5 million tons, he said in written reply to a question in Lok Sabha.
The upgradation will cost Rs 1,850 crore. Besides, Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd is spending Rs 390 crore on revamping its diesel/naphtha hydro-desulphurisation units, while Indian Oil is investing Rs 372 crore in petrol quality upgradation project at its Guwahati refinery.
Bongaigaon Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd is investing Rs 1,431.91 crore in diesel hydrotreatment and Numaligarh Refinery Ltd another Rs 434.94 crore in diesel quality upgradation, he said. He, however, did not give the timeframe for the investments.
To a separate question, Patel said Indian Oil earned a gross refinery margin of 8.54 dollars a barrel in 2007-08 against 4.19 dollars a barrel earned in 2006-07.
It earned a net refinery margin of 5.64 dollars per barrel. Refinery margin is the earning a company makes on processing a barrel of crude oil.
Out of the total increase of 4.35 dollars per barrel in 2007-08, an increase of 0.83 dollars is attributable to improvement and efficiency in working of the refineries.
Patel said 39.33 million tons of petroleum products worth Rs 1,06,999 crore was exported in 2007-08, opposed to 33.6 million tons valuing Rs 81,094 crore in the previous fiscal.