Union petroleum and natural gas minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Thursday expressed hope of reviving the stalled West Coast Refinery project, which if implemented, will be the largest in the world. The over Rs 3 lakh crore-project was approved when the BJP-Shiv Sena government headed by Devendra Fadnavis was in power in the state.

At that time, the government had acquired some portion of the 15,000 acres of land needed for the 60-million-tonne per annum project. However, with the change of guard in the state after the 2019 polls and an alliance of the Shiv Sena-Nationalist Congress Party-Congress coming to power under Uddhav Thackeray, the project was shelved.

Addressing an industry event on the energy technologies here, the minister said that though no concrete proposal has come to him yet from the state or from investors, he expects the project to be revived. “In one part of a country, there was a talk of a very major refinery being set up on the west coast. Investors were also ready but the earlier state government was busy in its own things,” Puri said.

“That government first said it will not let the refinery come in one place, then it said it won’t let it come in another place. Foreign investors were willing, but now the situation has changed and we are trying to again revive. Overall, the picture is looking very positive now,” Puri told reporters.

When asked whether he has got back to foreign investors, Saudi Arabia’s Aramco and UAE’s Adnoc, that had earlier agreed to pick up significant minority stakes in the project, Puri replied in the negative. The minister said that he has only sent feelers and the first response has been positive so far.

Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum are the promoters of the mega project.

BPCL sale off

Puri said the much delayed privatisation of oil major BPCL may not happen in the near future, saying there is “no proposal whatsoever” on his table for now.

The government in November 2019 put Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) on the block and said it would completely sell its 52.98 per cent stake in the country’s second-largest state-run oil refiner and marketer. Though it had received three tentative bids, it got only one financial bid from Vedanta group, forcing it in May 2022 to shelve the plan pending a “comprehensive review”. “How can a sale process under competitive bidding go ahead when there is only one bidder?” the minister said.