IOC plans ‘energy pumps’ for future with assortment of fuel options

New Delhi: Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) said on Monday that its retail outlets of the future will be ‘energy pumps’ offering a wide assortment of cleaner, greener and more efficient fuel options to millions of customers.

“While we are confident that petroleum fuels still have a long way to go, transition fuels will have a prominent place in IndianOil’s growing bouquet of energy offerings,” IOC Chairman S.M. Vaidya said.”And our retail outlets of the future will be ‘energy pumps’ offering a wide assortment of cleaner, greener and more efficient fuel options to millions of our customers,” he added.IOC is also planning to develop fuel cells and hydrogen solutions.

“In the long run, the company also intends to develop fuel cells and indigenous hydrogen storage solutions for promoting green mobility. Our R&D centre is pursuing research in this area and is focused on making significant contribution in developing hydrogen economy infrastructure in the country. H-CNG studies currently underway on BS-IV CNG engines have shown promising results in improvement of their emission profiles with slight modifications,” Vaidya said.

IndianOil is operating two hydrogen-dispensing stations with on-board hydrogen production (from electrolysis of water) and compression facility.With refineries presenting a very attractive case for acting as hydrogen production and supply centres, IndianOil is looking forward to pioneering the deployment of fuel cell technology in the country.

Vaidya announced that IndianOil is on track to achieve its capital expenditure target of Rs 26,233 crore in the current fiscal. With the easing of lockdown from mid-April 2020, work has commenced again on 2,800 projects at a combined investment of Rs 2.05 lakh crore.

“As part of expansion across the crude oil-to-chemicals (COTC) value chain, we plan to commission PX-PTA plant at Paradip; capacity expansion of the naphtha cracker and PX-PTA plant at Panipat complex. IndianOil refineries at Panipat and Paradip would achieve a Petrochemical Intensity Index (PII) of 15-20 per cent with the completion of the ongoing projects,” he added.

The IndianOil board on Monday accorded its approval for the implementation of petrochemical and lube integration at its Gujarat Refinery at an estimated cost of Rs 17,825 crore. The integration of Polypropylene (500 KTPA) and Lube Oil Base Stock (235 KTPA) units will enhance the petrochemical and specialty products integration index of Gujarat Refinery to 20.7 per cent on incremental throughput.

“As a long-term strategy, we plan to enhance our petrochemicals integration to about 14 to 15 petr cent of PII by the year 2030. Additionally, IndianOil is laying a 1,244 km R-LNG pipeline from its Ennore import terminal to supply natural gas to various consumers in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. This pipeline will serve as the key enabler for development of City Gas Distribution (CGD) networks in the region,” Vaidya said.

Work is also in progress on LPG import facilities at Paradip and Kochi; several grassroots LPG bottling plants, upcountry terminals/depots and other activities under CDG.IndianOil is currently the second largest player in petrochemicals in the country, with production capabilities in LAB, glycols, butadiene, PX-PTA and a wide range of polymer grades.

“For the future, we are focussing on entry into new segments like polyester filament yarn, polyester staple fibre, and polybutadiene rubber along the COTC value-chain,” he added.IndianOil has also established itself as the second largest player in natural gas in India.

“We are now scaling up investments in LNG import terminals, cross-country pipelines and CGD infrastructure. IndianOil already has 40 geographical areas (GA) in its CGD ambit. We are also aggressively promoting the use of compressed bio-gas, 2-G ethanol and bio-diesel produced from used cooking oil, besides integrating our refinery processes with bio-fuels production,” Vaidya said.

For the first fortnight of September 2020, IndianOil’s diesel sales rose 22 per cent month-on-month, but was down 9 per cent year-on-year whereas petrol sales are up 9 per cent month-on-month and registered a growth of 1 per cent vis-a-vis September 2019,” the IOC Chairman said.

The robust month-on-month recovery in diesel and petrol is primarily due to the easing of lockdown restrictions, while petrol demand is moving upwards due to increasing preference for personal mobility, he added.LPG is up 10.5 per cent year-on-year and 14 per cent month-on-month; jet fuel sales are up 27.8 per cent month-on-month but down 56.4 per cent year-on-year.