The much awaited forest clearance for South Jetty for IOCL’s Paradip refinery is expected soon as the proposal has been cleared by the State Expert Appraisal Committee. The forest clearance for the South Jetty dock complex is one of the critical milestones for completion of the project.
Application for the forest clearance was submitted in January 2011. After much delay, the State expert appraisal committee has recommended the project. The recommendations have also been forwarded to the environment ministry for grant of Stage-I clearance.
The jetty will be used for unloading crude and other items for the refinery. Paradip refinery project was earlier scheduled to be commissioned by November 2012. However, owing to the delays at the site, the project is now expected to be commissioned by April 2014.
The 15 million tonnes per annum Paradip refinery project, being set up in Orissa, is envisaged to be the most up-to-date advanced refinery in the country which will have no residue production. The refinery complex will have atmospheric and vacuum distillation unit, diesel hydro treater unit, naphtha fractionator unit, kerosene treating unit, amine regeneration unit, sulphur recovery unit and sour water stripper.
The complex will also have continuous catalytic regeneration unit, vacuum gas oil hydro-treatment unit, fluid catalytic cracker unit, indmax, delayed coker unit, spent sulphuric acid regeneration unit and alkylation unit. The total completion cost of the project has been estimated at Rs. 30,426 crore, with an overrun of Rs. 649 crore.
