India's Hindustan Petroleum is expected to commission 180,000 barrels per day Bathinda refinery in northern Punjab state by March 31st 2012.

The company in a statement said that the crude distillation unit/vacuum distillation at the refinery complex has already been commissioned.

The refinery is owned by Hindustan Mittal Energy Ltd a joint venture between state-run Hindustan Petroleum and billionaire Lakshmi Mittal's Mittal Energy.

At the end of August, it began crude processing on trial and there had been forecasts it could be fully operational by November.

(Sourced from ET)