NEW DELHI, February 14. /TASS/. India’s oil company Nayara Energy, in which Rosneft owns a 49.13% share, will double refining throughput of the oil-processing plant in the town of Vadinar (the state of Gujarat in the west of India), Secretary at the Indian Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas Pankaj Jain told TASS.
"This is the refinery expansion project, increasing the size of the refinery. They want to put much more refining. So if it is X right now, they want to make it two X," he said.
"It’s like to set up a new refinery. But if you already have a refinery, you have the land, it is faster if you expand the same refinery," Jain noted.
"Location is the same, in Gujarat, Vadinar. <...> They also have a port. It’s close to a sea port. So it is very helpful for them to bring crude oil to the refinery. At this location they want to expand," he added.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in January that the largest foreign investment in the Indian economy was made by Russia’s oil major Rosneft, which invested $23 bln in an oil-processing plant, a chain of gas stations and a port. He added that it was also planned to construct a plant.
Nayara Energy includes a refinery in Vadinar, a deep-water port that can handle ultra-large VLCC class tankers, and a chain of gas stations. Primary oil refining capacity of the Vadinar refinery totals 20 mln tons per year. The network of gas stations contains over 6,000 stations across India. Rosneft owns a 49.13% share in Nayara Energy.