The Rajasthan government now finds it difficult to supply water to the proposed Rs 37,229 crore oil refinery unit of 9 million tonne capacity. The Rajasthan government and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) have signed an agreement in last March to set up the refinery, which will process oil from Cairn India’s fields in the state and other crudes.
According to sources, Rajasthan government has agreed to give an interest-free loan of Rs 3,736 crore per annum for 15 years to the unit after commercial production starts. And the government has also assured to provide five to six million gallons of water a day for the refinery. Large volumes of water required for processing of crude oil. However, once the process is over, most of the water is recycled and the rest is contaminated, requiring further treatment.
For Rajasthan, a desert state, providing such a large quantity of water from the Indira Gandhi canal will be a challenge. For ease of importing crude oil, almost all new refineries have come up on the coast. The Rajasthan refinery will need a cross-country pipeline to be built to carry oil from the west coast, which will shrink margins, sources said.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.