India plans to nearly double oil refining capacity by 2030: Dharmendra Pradhan

New Delhi: India plans to almost double its oil refining capacity to 450-500 million tonnes in the next 10 years to meet the rising domestic fuel demand as well as cater to export market, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Tuesday. Speaking at a webinar on 'Atmanirbhar Bharat: Fostering Domestic Steel Usage in Oil & Gas Sector', he said construction of a new 60 million tonnes a year west coast refinery, which is crucial to the capacity doubling plan, will start soon.

"Our refining capacity will increase from about 250 million tonnes per annum now to 450-500 million tonnes in next 10 years," he said.

The capacity addition will be both brownfield (expansion of existing units) and greenfield (new refineries), he said.

The refining capacity of 249.9 million tonnes exceeded the fuel demand of 213.7 million tonnes in 2019-20, but the demand is likely to rise to 335 million tonnes by 2030 and 472 million tonnes by 2040.

International Energy Agency (IEA) forecast that India's fuel demand will reach 458 million tonnes by 2040.

As the world's third-biggest oil consumer, India imports 85 per cent of its energy requirements and is planning ahead to cater to the rise in demand.

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