Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd. has on Friday announced that it plans to buy oil from the USA in the coming months to supply its 166,000 barrel per day refinery in Visakhapatnam.
The purchase form the US will be for low-sulphur or light-sweet grade oil allowing HPCL to include US crude oil as an additional option and expand its basket. The shift to US crude oil is due to OPEC cuts driving up Middle Eastern crude oil which is high-sulphur or heavy-sour grade oil.
HPCL joins Indian Oil Corp and Bharat Petroleum Corp in stepping up purchases from the US after PM Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump expressed a new partnership in fulfilling India’s energy demands.
HPCL will invest Rs 7100 crores in expanding its refinery capabilities and strengthen associated infrastructure such as its pipeline network. The investments will increase the capacity of the Mumbai refinery to 190,000 barrel per day from 130,000 barrel per day by 2019 and Visakhapatnam’s capacity to 300,000 barrel per day by 2020.
