Indian Oil Corporation moves closer to expanding its Haldia refinery into a broader downstream petrochemicals complex, aided by West Bengal’s efforts to secure the necessary land after years of delay.
Indian Oil Corporation is closer to a long-delayed expansion at its Haldia refinery after West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari said the state would help assemble the land needed for a petrochemicals project that the company has pursued for years. The plan, which would turn the refinery site into a broader downstream complex, has been held back chiefly by the shortage of contiguous land.
Adhikari said on Monday that the project would require 175 acres, of which the Haldia Development Authority has already secured 85 acres. The balance, he said, could be arranged through the Haldia Dock Complex, which falls under Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port. According to local reports, he has taken up the matter with port authorities in an effort to clear the way for Indian Oil to move the proposal towards its board.
The company has long argued that the Haldia refinery needs a petrochemical component to remain commercially competitive. In 2023, an Indian Oil official said the company wanted to build a petrochemical complex next to the refinery, saying a standalone refining business was not sustainable enough on its own and needed the support of petrochemicals. Indian Oil has also pointed to its Paradip refinery in Odisha as a model, where a larger industrial ecosystem has grown around the plant.
The land issue has been the main obstacle for more than a decade. In 2021, then Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan wrote to the ministers for chemicals and fertilisers and shipping, asking them to help release about 175 acres held by Hindustan Fertilisers Corporation. Indian Oil has said the refinery is hemmed in by the Hooghly river, railway lines, canals and roads, making the eastern-side parcel the only practical contiguous area for expansion.
Haldia refinery, commissioned in 1975 with an initial capacity of 2.5 million tonnes a year, has since grown to nearly 9 million tonnes a year and now makes fuels, lubricants and speciality products. Indian Oil’s own profile says the refinery added a second catalytic iso-dewaxing unit in 2024, enabling production of Group III lubricant base stocks.
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