State-owned refiner Indian Oil Corporation plans to seek the approval of its board to invest about Rs 20,000 crore to increase the capacity of its Gujarat refinery to 18 million tonnes (mt) from 13.7mt. The company will invest Rs 15,000 crore to increase the capacity of its Barauni refinery and petrochemical facility.

“We would be taking to the board, at its next meeting, the investment approval of Rs 18,000 crore to Rs 20,000 crore for the Gujarat refinery,” S.M. Vaidya, director, refineries, told The Telegraph. The project would be among the expansion projects for the next fiscal.

IOC will build a new synthesis gas unit, a hydrogen unit and a butanol unit to make butyl acrylate, which is not produced in the country. Butyl acrylate is used to make paints, plastics, sealants, coatings, adhesives, and textiles and has a significant growth potential in India.

The refinery, located in Koyali, Vadodara, is expected to process crude grades from Kuwait, Basrah light (Iraq), Mangla in Rajasthan and oil produced from the north and south of Gujarat.

The project is likely to be commissioned in two stages and is expected to take five years.

IOC plans to spend close to Rs 2 lakh crore in the next five to seven years across its operations and has targeted to expand its refining capacity to 150mt per annum by 2030 from 69.2mt and petrochemical production to 13mt, according to the company’s annual report.