New Delhi, Oct. 4: State-owned Indian Oil Corporation plans to spend over Rs 18,000 crore to raise the capacity of its Panipat refinery to 25 million tonnes (mt) by 2020. IOC had planned to raise the capacity to 20mt from 15mt.

"We have land at Panipat refinery site and so, we are looking at going straight to 25mt. We have to look at the pipeline's capacity, which carries crude from the west coast to the refinery, before finalising if the capacity should be expanded to 20.2mt as planned earlier or go straight to 25mt," said Sanjiv Singh, director (refineries) of IOC.

India's fuel consumption rose 11 per cent last year, surpassing China's growth of 7 per cent, making the country the biggest driver of global energy demand.

"The growth in refining capacity has transformed India into one of the world's largest exporters of refined petroleum products in 2014-15 from a net importer until 2000-01. However, crude production in India is not keeping pace with the increased refining capacity," PwC said.

According to the International Energy Agency, Indian refiners face an ever more competitive product-export market, with West Asia expanding its refining capacity. India is one of the few countries, along with the US and South Korea, to rely on imports of crude while also being a significant net exporter of refined products.

Singh said IOC's board would shortly take up an investment approval for Panipat's expansion as well as that of a capacity upgrade at Koyali refinery in Gujarat and Mathura unit in Uttar Pradesh.

It is looking to scale up its Koyali refinery's capacity to 18mt from 13.7mt, while a 3-million-tonnes-per-annum (MTPA) capacity addition is planned at Mathura.

The board last week had approved an over Rs 9,800-crore investment to expand the Barauni refinery in Bihar to 9MTPA from 6MTPA and set up a petrochemical unit at the Panipat refinery complex.