Indian Oil's Suman Kumar on ₹21K crore investments in Bihar, renewable energy & state’s rapid growth

We fuel the national economy, and that is what we claim, being the largest supplier of hydrocarbon fuels in the country. To that extent, as demand grows, there is a need for us to expand our existing businesses and installations, and also create new facilities which go in tune with the development and growth taking place in the country. In the case of Barauni, it happened to be one of the very first refineries created in India, but it was a small unit at that point of time, 3 million tonnes, which we subsequently expanded to 6 million tonnes sometime in between. But now we are expanding it to 9 million tonnes, so an additional 3 million tonnes of refining capacity is getting created here. And not just this, alongside this we are also creating a 200 KTA, which is 2 lakh tonnes, of polypropylene capacity. Today we happen to be a large player in the petrochemical business in the country, and we are selling close to 3.2 million tonnes today. But our expansion plans are huge going forward. By 2030, we would be creating facilities which are the largest, maybe, in the country. And to that extent, this polypropylene capacity is going to contribute to that kitty. And not just this, it will as well act as a catalyst to further growth of the deep downstream industry in the hydrocarbon sector.

We are spending close to 15,500 crores in this expansion that is occurring at Barauni.

Maybe next year sometime we would be reaching an advanced stage of implementation. That is what the indication is as of now.

City gas distribution actually substitutes or replaces our existing business, so it is quite natural for us to get into this business and put our money into it, which hedges us against any business loss. To that extent, we are implementing the city gas distribution network in 27 districts in Bihar, and close to 5,600 crores is the investment getting into this. But this is an initial estimate. Going forward, as we progress in this business and as it starts giving us returns, it will invite much more investment. The quantum cannot be said as of now, but we have already anchored in these 27 districts and we would be expanding as the business grows and as customers' needs also grow.

We have been leading — Indian Oil has been leading the SATAT initiative of the Government of India, and we have one of the largest portfolios of developers who would be going forward developing CBG plants all across the country. We have very large plans in this. Specific to Bihar, we are planning to set up three to four CBG plants. Our model in this is to create demonstration centers which can subsequently be replicated by other entrepreneurs. To that extent, three or four we consider to be adequate to fuel that growth in Bihar.

Bihar always excites. See, this is the time when probably you're looking at developments happening here, and not just that, the speed is tremendous. The speed is simply mind-boggling. We may not have imagined in our own days while we were here that Bihar would grow at this speed. But all my wishes are there, and whatever it could take me to be a part of this laddoo, I would say it's my privilege.

Thank you very much. Thanks a lot. Thank you.