Indian Oil will spend Rs. 20,000 crore for its Gujarat refinery expansion

State-owned Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) will spend Rs. 20,000 crore towards expansion of its Gujarat refinery. Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said the refinery was expanding its capacity to 18 million tonnes per annum (MTPA)from the present 13.7 MTPA.

The expansion is expected to be commissioned by 2020. After the expansion, the Gujarat refinery will become IOC's largest refinery, Press Trust of India reports.

"IOC's Gujarat refinery here has been asked to jump directly from BSIV to the more stringent BSVI norms for petrol and diesel, so that cleaner transport fuel becomes available sooner to bring down vehicular emissions," Pradhan was quoted as saying by the agency.

Last week, Indian Oil Corp and GAIL India were offered stake in Adani Group's LNG project in Odhisha. Adani had written to the companies in March, offering them 49 percent of the Rs. 5,000-crore project.

Pradhan will be visiting Tehran April 9-10 in a bid to expand ties with Iran. Pradhan's agenda will include ONGC's participation in developing the Farzad-B gas field, settling pending payments for earlier oil purchases from the Middle-Eastern country. He may also discuss buying additional crude oil, the Economic Times reported.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will also visit Iran later this month, Pradhan said.

The Indian Oil stock was trading at Rs 408 at around 11:12 a.m. Thursday, down 0.46 percent from its previous close.

[1 lakh = 100,000 | 1 crore = 10 million | 100 crore = 1 billion]