Indian government extends refining working group deadline yet again

In India, the government’s oil ministry issued an order further extending the deadline of the 12-member working group that was supposed to prepare a roadmap for expanding refining capacity last year. What was going to be a three-month project has now been over a year in the making as India prepare plans for increasing their refining capacity by 2040 in order to keep up with their increasing oil demand. The new deadline is October 31, 2017, but time will tell if it gets extended again or not.

The government also decided to have a new leader head the panel, Sandeep Poundrik, the Joint Secretary (Refinery) in the oil ministry. The panel consists of directors from various refineries in the country, but with forecasted increased demand, the planned expansions in oil won’t be enough, so they are looking at renewables and cleaner fuels like solar, hydrogen, hydro, and biofuel.