GUWAHATI, May 29? Digboi refinery, the oldest refinery in the country, has not been able to produce speciality products to its full capacity due to lack of demand in the North-eastern region. Digboi refinery sources revealed that the refinery produces speciality products like MTO, JBO, Solar Oil, wax oil, binder oil, rhino shine, indo coat, indo paste, wood oil etc to cater to the requirements of the tea companies, paint industry, shipping industry, jute industry and various other industries. But some industries are still using such products imported from outside mainly due to lack of awareness, while, slow pace of industrialisation is another reason for lack of demand for the speciality products of Digboi refinery.
Refinery sources revealed that quality of bitumen produced by Digboi refinery improved substantially after the installation of Vacuum Residue Shortpath Distillation (VRSD) unit with technology transfer from Germany and now the wax content of bitumen produced by the refinery has been reduced considerably. But unfortunately the State Public Works Department and most other road construction companies are still bringing bituman from outside the State as a result of which, the road construction works in Assam is often affected due to short supply of Bitumen. Refinery sources said that at present some organisations like the BRTF are buying bitumen from Digboi refinery but the refinery is not producing to its full capacity. At present the refinery is producing only about 1,000 tonne of bitumen per month which is much below its installed capacity.
Meanwhile, speaking at a fuel and oil consumers? meet organised jointly by the Petroleum Conservation Research Association and the Indian Oil Corporation recently, Sri B K Sarma, general manager, marketing, IOC Limited (AOD), pointed out that the demand of petroleum products in this region is still very low, forcing the refineries to send their products outside. He revealed that the crude oil production in the North east is around five million metric tonne per annum against the refinery capacity of seven MMTPA of the four refineries of the State. The shortfall is sought to be met by importing 1.5 MMTPA of crude from Andhra Pradesh, but still a shortfall of 0.5 MMTPA of crude exists.
Sri Sarma revealed that the demand growth in the region continues to be low and at present it stands at around 1.8 MMTPA and about three MMTPA of refinery products are to be sent outside. Digboi refinery sources pointed out that earlier the transportation cost for the petroleum products sent outside the region was borne by the Petroleum Ministry. But in the new economic regime, the cost has to be borne by the oil companies and a transport subsidy needs to be given to the refineries for the transportation of the petroleum products to other parts of the country to keep the refineries as commercially viable units.