Hindustan Petroleum Corporation expects the 15 million tonne per annum expanded capacity at Visakhapatnam refinery to go onstream from June-end, its chairman Pushp Joshi said here on Sunday.

He was talking to the media on the sidelines of an event to flag off CNG-driven boats.

Joshi said that the company is in the process of commissioning units at the refinery, which previously had a capacity of 8.33 mtpa, adding that HPCL’s crude imports would increase from the next fiscal year. “Our crude imports will go up as we expand capacity. We will buy from wherever we get cheaper rates,” Joshi said.

HPCL is the third-largest oil importer and buys over 80 per cent of its oil from overseas.

“We market twice more than what we produce in the refineries, so that (expansion) will help the company become sufficient in refining products,” he said.

Joshi said HPCL’s residue upgradation project at the Vizag refinery to improve its distillate yield will be ready by the end of this year or in January 2024.

To expand its portfolio, HPCL is setting up an oil-to-chemical plant linked to its Vizag refinery and building a 5 mtpa gas import terminal at Chhara in Gujarat.

Joshi said the LNG terminal would be ready by the end of March, but commissioning would take time as a pipeline for the evacuation of gas and a breakwater is yet to be built.

“We are looking at ways to operate the terminal and have floated a term sheet to import 1.5–2 mt of liquefied natural gas,” he said.