About the West Coast Refinery Project:
- First conceptualised in 2014, the West Coast refinery project, also known as the Ratnagiri Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd. (RRPCL), was envisioned as India’s largest greenfield refinery with a capacity of 60 million tonnes per annum and is touted to become the largest integrated refinery and petrochemical facility in the world.
- Location: As the name implies, the project is supposed to be set up on India’s western coast, specifically in Ratnagiri, Maharashtra.
- The refinery is expected to produce around 1.2 million barrels of oil a day when completed, alongside the various petroleum products that will be produced by attached petrochemical plants.
- Three of India’s leading government-owned public sector undertakings in the oil and gas sector came together in a joint venture partnership called RRPCL.
- RRPCL is a 50:25:25 joint venture formed in 2017 by India's three national oil companies, Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL).
- In 2019, Saudi Aramco and the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) decided to get involved as well, collectively acquiring a 50 percent stake in the project, which is estimated to be worth around Rs 3 lakh crore purely in set-up costs.
