Madurai: Chennai Petroleum Corp plans to invest Rs 5,000 crore for revamping its Chennai refinery to enhance the quality of manufactured petroleum products.

The revamping would be completed by 2009 and CPCL would bear the entire cost of the project, company's General Manager (Maintenance) D Selvaraj told PTI here. The company also plans to supply Euro4 quality Petrol in the next one or two years, he said. Besides, CPCL also intends to set up a 15-million tonne per year capacity refinery at Ennore and has approached the state government for 3,000 acre of land.

"We are in the process of acquiring the land. The new refinery would be sophisticated, one that would be able to supply higher-end products," Selvaraj said. Admitting that the company was unable to meet the demand for wax by the match and candle industries in Tamil Nadu, he said, this was mainly due to the sudden and unseasonal rise in demand for various petroleum products, including wax.

With TN becoming a global hub for wax-based industries, there would be 14 per cent increase in demand of various petroleum products. Wax would be used for even fruit and vegetable covering shortly in the state, he said, adding CPCL was gearing itself to meet the demand. Similarly, there was 20 per cent increase in the demand for aviation turbine fuel." It is an unprecedented demand, which we are confident of meeting as it is lucrative business also," he said.

CPCL is also planning to manufacture specialised bitumen and petcoke. There was also a plan to expand the capacity for making mineral turpentine, Selvaraj said.

Source : PTI