Indian Oil Corp. Ltd. has granted a contract to Essar Projects (I) Ltd. for work on the 300,000bpd grassroots refinery it is building at Paradip, Orissa, on India’s east coast.

Essar Projects will conduct residual process design, detailed engineering, procurement, construction, commissioning, and performance testing of core processing units. The lump-sum turnkey contract covers the atmospheric vacuum, straight run LPG treating, naphtha hydrotreating, naphtha fractionator, continuous catalytic reforming, sour water stripper, and amine regeneration units.

The full-conversion refinery will be able to process all heavy, sour crudes. IOCL expects to begin commissioning in March 2012.