11,196 crore Petro Refinery at Vizag

Hyderabad, Nov 17 (INN): The State Government and Amerind Petroleum on Thursday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to set up establish a Petroleum Refinery near Visakhapatnam with an estimated cost of Rs 11,196 crore.

The MoU was signed in the presence of Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy at the Secretariat this evening. Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister thanked the Amerind Petroleum Corporation for locating the refinery in Andhra Pradesh.

He assured that the State Government will try its best to help the company start its operations immediately. He hoped that this should become the best Petroleum Refinery in the country.

Announcing total cooperation, the Chief Minister said that Andhra Pradesh has many advantages like a long coastline and natural resources and the Government provides the best infrastructural facilities.

Major Industries Minister Dr J Geetha Reddy said that the State has the second longest coastline in the country. She said the Visakhapatnam-Kakinada has been declared s a PCPIR zone.

She also claimed that the State has the best industrial policy in the country and infrastructural facilities. She hoped that after Amerind Refinery, many more companies would come forward for establishing their units.

The Amerind Petroleum Private Limited (Amerind) in joint technical collaboration with the American Industrial Corporation (AIC) is proposing to establish a Petroleum Refinery, with an Initial Refining Capacity to process 7.50 Million Tonnes of Crude oil per Annum (1,50,000 Barrels per day).

It will produce the entire range of Petroleum Products, meeting the EURO-IV Standards and complying with all the Environmental and Pollution Control norms as per the Indian and International Standards. The refinery will be located in the PCPIR Industrial Zone near Visakhapatnam.

In the First Phase, the Project is being set up on a Turn Key Basis, by AIC, the American Technical Collaborator, by Relocating an existing and running Refinery acquired by AIC in the U.S.A. at a very low Project Cost, estimated at Rs.2,525 Crores, (U.S.$ 505 Million ).

The Project in its Second Phase will be expanded to a total Refining Capacity of 15 Million Tons per annum along with a Petro Chemicals Complex, at an additional estimated Project cost of Rs.8,611 Crores.

The Refinery will be the first Private sector Unit in the State. The Refinery will have its own Captive Floating Marine Terminal and three under water pipelines, to receive the imported Crude oil and to dispatch Products for exports. The Refinery will have a Railway siding and will be well connected to the National Highway, NH-5.

Amerind Petroleum Private Limited has been promoted by Syed Badruddin who hails from a well-known aristocratic family of Hyderabad and is a successful technocrat entrepreneur with 36 years of experience in the manufacturing industries in Andhra Pradesh.

He is a chief promoter and the Chairman of the company and the project is being set up with financial assistance from the Exim Bank of USA.

According to a CMO release, Amerind Petroleum Private Limited is registered under the Indian Companies Act-1956, in Andhra Pradesh, and proposes to manufacture products like Motor Spirit (Petrol), High Speed Diesel (HSD), Light Diesel Oil (LDO), Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF), Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) and Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO).

The American Industrial Corporation has a consortium of 14 U.S companies with experience and expertise of over 25 to 30 years in the petroleum refineries and is well versed in their respective fields.

AIC has signed a comprehensive turnkey contract with Amerind Petroleum Private Limited (India) for the establishment of a Petroleum Refinery with a capacity to process 1,50,000 barrels of crude oil per day near Visakhapatnam.

The contract includes acquisition, relocation, technical designs and engineering services, installation in India and startup on a total turnkey basis and also includes arrangement of Project through the EXIM Bank of the United States.

American Industrial Corporation informed that they have already received a Letter of Intent/Approval from EXIM Bank for this project on June 24 this year for a direct loan funding of US $375 million for the US costs of the project plus upto 30 per cent of this for the local costs in India.

The project funding comprises of loan funding of US $404 million and equity of US $101 million. The company proposes to go in for an IPO in India after the commencement of the commercial production.

The Refinery will contribute over Rs.15,544 Crores, annually, by way of Import Duty, Excise, State Sales Tax, State Surcharge to the Government of India and the State Government. Out of this, the Sales Tax and the State Surcharge payable to the State Government works out to more than Rs.7122 Crores annually.

The refinery has plans to set up 3,500 retail outlets to market their own products, over a period of 3 to 5 years, from the date of commencement of commercial production and will be able provide total direct employment to around 55,000 persons, skilled, semi-skilled and un-skilled personnel in the refinery, material handling and transportation department and in the retail outlets (petrol/gas stations).

Initially Amerind will be marketing their products through a marketing tie-up with the oil marketing companies of India. The total Implementation time required for the Refinery is 30 to 36 Months from the date of receipt of all clearances from the State and the Central Government.

Treating the proposed refinery as a Mega Project, the state government is considering special package of incentives as per IIPP-2010-15, industrial clearances and approvals through Single Window Clearance in a time-bound period to help the company in the initial marketing tie-up support with the public sector oil companies, (OMCs) IOCL and BPCL and procuring land for the project through APIIC in the PCPIR Region.