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Chennai Petroleum `close to finalising' PMC contract

Our Bureau

CHENNAI, Jan. 4

CHENNAI Petroleum Corporation Ltd is close to finalising the project management consultant (PMC) for its three-million tonne expansion project at its Manali refinery.

``We expect to send the letter of appointment in a weeks' time", Mr. S. Rammohan, Chairman and Managing Director, CPCL, told Business Line.

The PMC will take care of all aspects of implementing the expansion project, including appointing lump sum turnkey contractors for various units and overseeing their operations.

It is understood that the value of the PMC contract will be between Rs 80 crore and Rs 100 crore. The total cost of the project is put around Rs. 2,360.38 crore.

``There are quite a few in the race....there is Engineers India Ltd, Toyo Engineering and so on'', he said when asked to name the companies in the shortlist for the PMC.

Engineers India, incidentally, has been appointed the Engineering, Procurement, Construction (EPC) contractor for the `column and offsites'.

In the last two months, CPCL was engaged in getting the licences for various units of the project. The licensees include IFB of France and UOP of the US.

On CPCL's proposed 480 MW power project, Mr. Rammohan said that the project was stuck up because the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) did not want to sign the power purchase agreement (PPA).

In case, TNEB does not want to buy the power, CPCL would look for opportunities to sell it to other parties (such as the Power Trading Corporation), he said. ``But we are definitely going ahead with the project''.

The CMD did not think that getting the technology was not any problem. (Using refinery residue as the power plant fuel would cause sulphurous emissions and removing the sulphur would call for high investments. This problem can be overcome by using the In tegrated Gassification Combined Cycle (IGCC) technology, which is yet nascent. But Mr. Rammohan feels that this technology could be easily accessed, financed).

On the performance of CPCL in the last quarter, he said that the company could make good profits in October and November, but prices again fell in December.

CPCL has launched a new product called `crumb rubber modified bitumen', which is a better material for surfacing roads.

The product is manufactured with crumb rubber, produced from discarded tyres. Crumb rubber is produced in India by the New Delhi-based Tinna Overseas Ltd, in collaboration with Gilsonite of the US.