Hindustan Petroleum Corporation's new refinery project in Ratnagiri, Maharashtra is finally seeing some positive action as ET learns that the Maharashtra state government has finally taken some affirmative action to approve the project.

Mr K Murali director refineries of HPCL said that "Our new refinery project seems to be making some headway as we nave learnt that the state government is currently benchmarking the benefits given to other greenfield refinery projects in other states and will be coming back to us with a new benefits package soon.”

HPCL is planning to build a new 9-15 MTPA Greenfield refinery project in Ratnagiri, Maharashtra, He added that "We have identified 3,000 acres of land in the Lote Parshuram industrial area in Chiplun Konkan district in Ratnagiri and are yet to begin work as we are waiting for the state government to grant us clearances for land allocation.”

A detailed feasibility report on the project has been submitted and we are in the process of appraising the report and also need to look at the financials of the project.

HPCL has been seeking a tax holiday and swift land acquisition for the project. Earlier in June 2011 HPCL had also sought more land from the Maharashtra government to set up the refinery as it was also considering another site for the refinery.

It had asked for 4000 hectares for the proposed facility at Chausal, in the same district. The government had indicated that land will be available for the refinery, which will cost HPCL around INR 30,000 crore.

HPCL is also in the process of reviving its USD 10 billion refinery-cum-petrochemical project in Visakhapatnam and is currently in talks with various companies like Mittal Energy to enter into a joint venture partnership.

(Sourced from ET)