India’s Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd has pushed back the completion of a billion-dollar expansion at its southeastern Vizag refinery to at least October-November due to a labour shortage and the onset of monsoon, a company source said.
The state-run refiner had initially planned to complete the 209.28 billion rupee ($2.77 billion) expansion in July that will nearly double the capacity of its coastal plant to 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) from 166,000 bpd.
Workers have returned to their home towns after the government imposed nationwide lockdowns to curb the spread of coronavirus, while the onset of monsoon has made it difficult to carry out construction work, the source told Reuters.
“Because of the lockdown we could not carry out the planned pre-monsoon work. We lost that window,” the source said, asking not to be named due to sensitivity of the issue.
“We have not yet done our assessment but it seems completion of the project would be delayed to at least October-November.”
India has significantly eased the lockdown restrictions but a return to pre-COVID activity will take some time as inter-state transportation is still restricted and the number of virus cases is still rising.
