Coming soon - three Panipat refinery tenders

Megha Engineering's spate of refinery tender victories will have other bidders anxiously watching as IndianOil prepares to release tenders for a diesel hydrotreater and a vacuum gas oil hydrotreater at its Panipat refinery.

IOC is preparing tenders for three units to raise capacity from 15m t/y to 25m t/y at the refinery in Haryana, near a historic 1526 battle site allowing Mughal commander Babur to lay the foundations of his Indian empire. A contractor in regular touch with IOC tells us he expects the Rs1300cr ($175m) EPC tender to set up a 5m t/y diesel hydrotreater unit to remove nitrogen and sulphur impurities from diesel to be out next month (August 2021).

He adds companies likely to bid are L&T, Tata Projects, Technip, Megha Engineering, Tecnimont, Toyo Engineering and Petrofac. Hyderabad-based Megha, which attended the pre-tender meeting on June 10 (2021), has already bid lowest for seven IOC and HPCL refinery projects worth Rs13,135cr ($2.06bn), as we reported on July 15 (2021).

Whoever wins this contract must set up the diesel hydrotreater unit in 30 months with three months for commissioning. In August, IOC is also preparing a tender to set up a 3.6m t/y vacuum gas oil hydrotreater to improve the quality of vacuum gas oil used as feedstock in petrol and diesel production.

Axens is the licensor for the Rs 1500cr ($200m) project where likely bidders include L&T, Tata Projects, Technip, Megha Engineering, Tecnimont, Toyo Engineering, Petrofac and thyssenkrupp. Expected in September is a pre-tender meeting for a 3.3m t/y residue hydrocracking facility to process heavy feedstock to maximise diesel production.

"IOC initially held the pre-tender meeting in December 2020," says a source. "But because of changes to the tender terms, they will do it again."

All three tenders are clubbed together under the EPCM-1 package for which IOC awarded the project consultant job to Engineers India in April 2019.