India-based refining company Bharat Petroleum (BPCL) has announced its plans invest to about $4bn to increase its refinery capacity by 170,000 barrels per day (bpd) nearly a 30%, over the next four years.
BPCL will increase the capacity of the Kochi refinery in Kerala to 300,000 bpd from 190,000 bpd, by adding a new propylene-based petrochemical plant with an estimate cost of INR180-200bn ($4.02-4.07bn).
The expansion of the Kochi plant is scheduled to come on line in March 2015.
BPCL chief executive RK Singh reportedly stated that the company has recently commissioned the Bina plant with capacity of 120,000 bpd, which is expected to start complete operations in the next three months.
After attaining the full capacity, the company plans to slowly increase its capacity to180,000 bpd through process optimization and tweaking secondary units.
Bina is designed to process medium-heavy, sour crude from the Middle East.
It is currently operating exclusively on Saudi Arabian crude but will diversify to other similar grades as the plant ramps up production.
In addition to these three plants, the company also has a stake in the Numaligarh refinery in the east India with a capacity to process 60,000 barrels of crude per day.