India’s refining hub to be largest in world

Reliance Industries and Essar Oil, India’s largest private sector oil refiners, are set to create the world’s biggest petroleum refining hub as part of plans to expand their plants in Jamnagar, western India.

Essar has announced a $6bn expansion plan to more than triple capacity at its refinery, while Reliance, at its site a few kilometres away, is working on plans to almost double capacity.


The expansion projects will bring their combined refining capacity at Jamnagar to 1.9m barrels a day, the largest in the world in a single location, outstripping hubs such as Rotterdam and Singapore and those in China and South Korea, according to figures compiled by Fesharaki Associates Consulting and Technical Services, Singapore.

The plants at Jamnagar will mostly handle crude imported from the Middle East for refining and re-export, underlining India’s growing role as an offshoring hub not only for computer services but also for more traditional industries.

Rediff