Reuters cited two company sources as saying that IOC plans to fully commission the 300,000 barrel per day (bpd) refinery in the next six months.
The plant refined West African sweet crude on its commissioning, but is designed to process Mexico’s Maya crude.
In addition to supplying to the markets in east India, the refinery’s output is expected to make India compete with supplies from new and expanded plants in the Middle East and China.
The sources said that the company is planning is commission the secondary units in phases by end-October aimed to improve the quality of fuels.
The crude unit at the plant will be closed for about two months after 10-15 days of operations and use the intermediary products for commissioning the secondary units, the sources said.
The Paradip refinery was originally scheduled for commissioning in 2012 but was delayed several times.
With the commissioning of the Paradip refinery, overall refining capacity of IOC has increased to 1.61 million bpd, accounting for 35% of the country’s 4.6 million bpd capacity.
