By Nidhi Verma
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India’s Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd is scouting for liquefied natural gas (LNG) import deals as it expects to start its 5 million ton per year (tpy) LNG terminal in western India by end of this year, its head of finance said on Tuesday.
“We will be undertaking commissioning activity in November or December depending on weather conditions … We are in the market for tying up long-term gas from international players,” Rajneesh Narang said at its June quarter earnings call.
The company’s previous attempt to commission the Chhara LNG terminal in April failed due to the bad weather, he said.
The state-run refiner is building a breakwater to protect the harbor and would consider leasing capacity in the LNG terminal to other players after commissioning, he said.
HPCL will meet the gas needs of its two existing refineries and a new 180,000 barrels per day (bpd) refinery and petrochemical project in the desert state of Rajasthan through the Chhara terminal.
Chairman Pushp Kumar Joshi said HPCL will import crude in March for the commission of the Rajasthan refinery and would build the linked petrochemical project by September 2025.
HPCL expects to improve its gross refining margins by $3 per barrel after the full-scale operations at its 300,000 bpd Vizag refinery, Joshi said. HPCL hopes to start facilities to boost production of high-value refined products at the Vizag refinery in the December quarter.
The state-run refiner has raised the processing of Russian oil to about 35-40% of its overall crude intake in the June quarter from about a quarter a year ago, Narang said.
HPCL also operates a 190,000 bpd plant in western Maharashtra state. It has a stake in the 226,000 bpd Bathinda refinery in northern India, which is operated by Hindustan-Mittal Energy Ltd, part-owned by LN Mittal.
(Reporting by Nidhi Verma; Editing by David Holmes)
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