Guha Roy: Power pact

Calcutta, June 18: Bharat Petroleum Corporation will pick up petrol and diesel from Cals Refineries’ proposed 10-million-tonne refinery in Haldia. Cals plans to commission a 5-million-tonne refinery by July 2011 and another similar plant within a year.

BPCL will buy only 50 per cent of the petrol and diesel produced in the first phase. In the second phase, it will go for the entire produce.

Cals had earlier entered into an agreement with British Petroleum under which the global giant would pick up half of the produce in the first phase and export from Haldia.

“With the BPCL agreement, we have been able to secure a customer for all products from the upcoming Haldia refinery,” Manabendra Guha Roy, CEO of Cals, said.

The company, promoted by Spice Group promoter Sanjay Malhotra, has bought a used refinery in Germany.

The BayernOil plant at Ingolstadt is being dismantled and will be shipped to Haldia. The consignment will start arriving from October.

In the second phase, a Petro Canada refinery from Oakville will be brought to Haldia. Some of the components will be brought from a Caltex refinery in the Philippines.

Roy said the ground work for the initial phase, including the construction of the boundary wall and landfilling work, was on.

Dhamra Port move

Cals has found a way to bring crude oil to its plant at Haldia despite the poor navigability of the Hooghly river.

It has signed a deal with Dhamra Port in Orissa where an oil jetty will be built. In the first phase, Cals plans to bring crude in large ships to Dhamra, and from there bring the consignments in small ships to Haldia.

In the second phase, there is a plan to lay a pipeline from Dhamra to Haldia. The deep water port at Dhamra is being built by Tata Steel and Larsen & Toubro. IOC has a similar arrangement with Paradip for its Haldia refinery.