7/16/2019 New site for India's refinery and petrochemicals project | MEED

New site for India’s refinery and petrochemicals

project
02 JULY 2019 8:03 AM BY INDRAJIT SEN (HTTPS://WWW.MEED.COM/AUTHOR/INDRAJIT-SENMEED-COM/)

Maharashtra state government has picked a site near Mumbai for the
refinery and petrochemicals project

The government of the Indian state of Maharashtra has announced it has selected a new location
for the $44bn downstream project (https://www.meed.com/saudi-aramco-adnocs-india-downstream-
project-schedule-delayed/), in which Saudi Aramco and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc)
have invested.
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Maharashtra state’s Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has said his government has picked Raigad
district, near India’s financial capital Mumbai, as the site for the refinery and petrochemicals project.

According to Indian media reports, Fadnavis told state assembly lawmakers that a state government
body has been tasked with buying land from around 40 villages in Raigad district for the project.

Aramco and Adnoc each own 25 per cent stakes (https://www.meed.com/adnoc-signs-deal-mega-

indian-downstream-complex/) in the Ratnagiri Refinery and Petrochemicals Company Limited.

A consortium of Indian state-owned firms hold the other half of the project JV: Indian Oil Corporation
holds 25 per cent, and Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum hold 12.5 per cent stakes each.

The downstream project, which is to feature a giant refinery with a capacity of 1.2 million barrels a
day and a petrochemicals plant that will produce 18 million tonnes of products a year, was originally
planned to be located in Nanar town of Maharashtra’s coastal district of Ratnagiri.

The state government could not acquire land for the project in Ratnagiri district
(https://www.meed.com/india-moves-acquire-land-joint-project-aramco-adnoc/), which lies along
India’s Arabian Sea coastline, despite making efforts since April last year, due to protests by local
farmers, activist groups, and environmentalists, as well as political opposition parties.

Rumours about Fadnavis’ government eyeing Raigad district as an alternative site for the project
(https://www.meed.com/india-shift-location-aramco-adnoc-downstream-project/) had been
circulating for a while.

Time was running out for Fadnavis and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), as the joint venture
entity that owns the project issued an ultimatum to the Maharashtra government to allocate land in
the state by August (https://www.meed.com/india-downstream-project-operator-issues-ultimatum-
state-government/), or risk losing the project to Maharashtra’s neighbouring state of Gujarat.

MEED understands that if the Maharashtra state government succeeds in acquiring land for the
downstream megaproject in Raigad district, the JV company would have to rebrand itself by
dropping ‘Ratnagiri’ from its name.

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Meanwhile, on 30 June, India’s Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, announced a meeting with Shri
Uddhav, the leader of Shiv Sena, the main opposition party in Maharashtra state in Mumbai. Shri
Uddhav is also a member of the BJP-led political alliance that governs India at a national level.

Shiv Sena is the main political force opposing the setting up of the downstream project in Ratnagiri
district, and has fueled agitations against the scheme.

With the Maharashtra government now keen on accelerating the megaproject’s development in the
state, it is being speculated that Pradhan may have discussed the project with Shiv Sena party
president Uddhav Thackeray, and coaxed him and his party’s leadership to not create further
hurdles for the state administration.

Dharmendra Pradhan
@dpradhanbjp

Met @ShivSena Chief, Shri Uddhav Thackeray and discussed

about working together for a more prosperous & developed
Maharashtra. Stressed on how Maharashtra can play a stellar

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7/16/2019 New site for India's refinery and petrochemicals project | MEED

role in fulfilling Hon. PM Shri @narendramodi’s aim of making

India a 5 trillion dollar economy.
1,549 11:19 AM - Jun 30, 2019

191 people are talking about this

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