Decision on refinery by Total, Mittal & 3 PSUs by year-end

Total of France, steel billionaire LN Mittal and their state-run partners will by the year-end decide on investing about $6 billion in setting up a 14 million-ton refinery-cum-petrochemical plant at Vizag in Andhra Pradesh.

The project is at pre-feasibility stage, before the end of the year we will know if we will move ahead with the project, Total Oil Asia-Pacific Senior Vice President Thierry Pflimlin told reporters in New Delhi.

The five-way joint venture that also includes Hindustan Petroleum, Oil India Ltd and GAIL India, which had in October 2007 inked a preliminary MoU for the project, are looking at 4-5 year horizon from the zero date for commissioning the project.

The pre-feasibility report that is looking at demand in India and Asia and project economies, will be ready by end of third quarter of 2008 after which the steering committee of the five partners will meet to decide if the project is to be taken up, he said.

To start with, it will be an export refinery but in long-term some products will cater to Indian market, he said. If the project goes through, this will be Mittals second refinery venture in India after he picked 49 per cent stake in HPCL's greenfield refinery at Bhatinda in Punjab that is set for commissioning by early 2012.

Pflimlin said the pre-feasibility will also factor in absence of tax breaks in deciding the economies of the project. The Government has stated that seven year income tax holiday will not be available to refineries commissioning after March 31, 2012.