Rajasthan govt signed JV agreement for refinery project with HPCL

JAIPUR: Rajasthan government and state owned oil firm HPCL inked an agreement to form a joint venture company for

Barmer petroleum refinery

and petrochemical complex on Thursday. In a new firm,

HPCL Rajasthan Refinery Limited

(HRRL), state government will have 26% and HPCL will have 74 per cent of partnership.

The agreement was a follow up MoU signed between both the stakeholders in April, 2017 and comes a day after government of India gave its approval for the project.

With JV in place, government is aiming to start and complete the construction work in four years. “After receiving all necessary clearances on slated deadlines, ground breaking ceremony would be solemnised for start of the actual work for the refinery” said chief minister, Vasundhara Raje during the signing ceremony.

She, however, expressed satisfaction on the progress of the refinery and directed the officials to expedite the pace of work as soon as the

Environmental Clearance

was received from the Ministry of Environment.

Principal Secretary Mines and Petroleum, Aparna Arora and director (finance) of HPCL, J. Ramaswami signed the JV agreement respectively on behalf of the state government and the HPCL

Earlier on April 19, after prolonged negotiations that lasted over three years, government signed a revised MoU with HPCL for a 9 million metric tonne crude oil refinery at Barmer that would require investments of Rs 43,129 crore and produce fuels meeting BS-VI specifications.

As per the claims made by the present government, revised deal will save the state Rs 40,000 crore with annual viability gap funding of Rs 1,123 crore for 15 years instead of Rs 3,736 crore as per the previous MoU that former CM Ashok Gehlot signed with HPCL.

“Honest negotiations between the officials of the state government and the HPCL led to the significant savings. Also, the state would receive 12% Return on Investment (RoI) instead of earlier 2% accepted in the previous MoU for the refinery” claimed Raje.

As per the proposed plan, the refinery project would be established in 4,813 acres of land area. Tender process for the boundary wall for this has been initiated. Also a 270 MW power would be generated from the waste petcoke generated from the refinery. A green zone would be established in the refinery campus and a new industrial area would also be developed.