NEW DELHI: State-owned major oil marketing company Indian Oil Corp (IOC) has set its capex target for the next fiscal year 2025-26 at Rs 33,000 crore against the capex target of Rs 35,000 crore in FY25, the company said on Tuesday. As of December, the company has incurred a capex of Rs 28,000 crore for the fiscal.
The firm, which reported a fall of 76.7% in its consolidated net profit for the third quarter of the financial year 2024-25, has laid out plans to increase its refining capacity at three of its refineries — Panipat (Haryana), Gujarat and Barauni (Bihar).
“IOC is going for expansion of three major refinery units. One is the expansion in Panipat where from 15 million tonne per annum, we are going to 25 MMTPA. This is a Rs 38,000 crore project and the expected completion of this is FY26,” the company’s top management said on an analyst call.
IOC is also expanding the capacity of its Gujarat refinery at an estimated cost of Rs 19,000 crore and expects the project to be commissioned by the last quarter of the next fiscal. The Barauni refinery expansion from 6 MMTPA to 9 MMTPA at a cost of Rs 14,800 crore is also expected to be completed in next one to two years, the company said.
When asked how the new US sanctions on Russia will impact the firm’s crude sourcing, it said that there is no dearth of oil availability in the market and IOC is under discussion with various countries including that in West Asia and Africa for crude oil purchases.
“IOC has many markets to procure crude oil, whether it is West Asia, Africa or Russia. We try to buy crude from the market which gives us the cheapest crude,” IOC said. “There is no dearth of crude oil availability in the world. Only the commercial aspects will have to be seen. We will have to see if discounts at which we used to get Russian crude before will come up or the quantity comes down due to the sanctions,” the company said. It also noted that they already have term contracts with various West Asian countries through which it would be able to get enough crude for the firm.
During FY 2024-25 up to December, Russian crude oil imports accounted for nearly 25% of IOCL’s total crude oil imports. The company noted that the discounts on Russian crude have now declined to $1-1.5 per barrel against the benchmark prices compared to $3 per barrel up till December.
“We are getting the impact (of the sanctions) as on date. So far, for January and February, we have a reasonable intake (of crude oil). For March, whatever we thought is not going to come in the same quantity. But starting April, we are expecting that Russian crude is going to come,” said the firm, adding that it will only go for Russian crude if it comes at a reasonable price.
The company highlighted that Russian crude comes in small-sized vessels whereas crude from West Asia and other regions coming in VLCC (very large crude carriers). “So freight advantage outweighs our other discounts,” IOC said.
The company is also expecting the government to give subsidies to the country’s OMCs for the under recoveries made on the sale of LPG (liquified petroleum gas).
Additionally, IOC is aiming to build a robust renewable energy portfolio with 31 GW of capacity by 2030 to achieve its net zero targets.
“6-7 GW capacity would be done through organic, another major portion will be coming through JV routes, and another 5-6 GW we are targeting through mergers and acquisitions,” said the company.
Source: The Financial Express
Govt Unveils Rs 20,000 Crore Plan To Hike Sail’s Bokaro Steel Plant Capacity 