CPCL's Rs 500-cr capex

Oil major Chennai Petroleum Corporation (CPCL) on Monday announced that it would invest Rs 500 crore to shift to gas-based fuel to power its refinery.

CPCL Director (Operations) S Venkataramana said that preliminary studies with regard to engineering have been completed at a cost of Rs 100 crore.

The official said once the Indian Oil Corporation’s LNG Terminal gets ready, which is expected to be completed by 2018, and the confirmed source for Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) gets finalised, we will commence the next stage.

Stating that the work on migrating from the present low sulphur fuel to run its refinery to gaseous fuel was expected to commence next year, Venkataramana said the company would be saving significantly in fuel costs once the fuel was changed to gas.

Asked about the impact on the resolution of Iran issue by the western countries, he said the fact that Iran would be one more source of crude oil would be the beneficial impact.  

According to CPCL managing director Gautam Roy, the company closed the first quarter of the current fiscal Rs 924 crore as compared with Rs 510 crore posted during the corresponding quarter of 2014-15.

He said the gross refining margin (GRM) during the quarter ended June 30, 2015, was $10.99 per barrel as against $1.88 per barrel during the corresponding period of last fiscal.

Roy said the blended average price of crude for Chennai Petroleum is around $61 during the first quarter of the current fiscal.