India’s state-owned oil companies-Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum, and Hindustan Petroleum- have signed a joint venture (JV) agreement to build one of the world’s largest integrated refinery-petrochemical complexes in Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra State on India’s west coast. The 60-million metric tons/year (MMt/y) west coast refinery complex will be built at an estimated cost of $40 billion, and is expected to be commissioned by 2022. It will be a greenfield refinery with 50 units and will be self-sufficient in power and utilities requirements. Designed to produce Euro-Vl and above grade transportation fuels, the refinery will have in-built flexibility for processing a spectrum of light and heavy crude oil grades, utilizing various blending techniques. It will also be able to produce on-demand product mixes of gasoline and diesel streams, as well as other refined products and petrochemical streams with a high level of integration and energy efficiency, the JV partners say. Indian Oil will be the lead partner with a 50% stake and Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum will each have 25%, Indian Oil’s Chairman Sanjiv Singh said at the signing ceremony. According to Dharmendra Pradhan, India’s oil minister, Saudi Aramco wants to enter into exclusive talks with India to buy a stake in the planned refinery. The planned petrochemical complex will have aromatics facilities, a naphtha cracker, and polymer plants. The refinery will include three crude oil processing units of 20 MMt/y each. The refinery will be able to source crude oil from the Middle East, Africa, and South America. Source: IHS Chemical Week, 6/19/2017, p.15.