India's Chennai Petroleum Corp Forms Joint Venture For $4 Billion Refinery

Chennai Petroleum Corp Ltd said on Tuesday it has formed a joint venture with its parent company Indian Oil Corp and others to build a 9 MMTPA refinery at a cost of 315.80 billion rupees ($3.95 billion) in southern Tamil Nadu state.

CPCL, in which National Iranian Oil Company has about 15% stake, was operating a small refinery at the Cauvery Basin at Nagapattinam, where the new plant will be located.

The new refinery will come up after dismantling the existing 1 million metric ton per annum (MMTPA) refinery, according to CPCL's website, and will produce liquefied petroleum gas, BS VI quality gasoline, diesel and aviation turbine fuel.

CPCL will hold 25% stake in the new refinery for an investment of 25.70 billion rupees, while IOC and other seed equity investors including Axis Bank, HDFC

Life Insurance Co, ICICI Bank, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Co and SBI Life Insurance Co, will hold the rest.

($1 = 79.8490 Indian rupees)