India's state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) planed to invest over 710 billion rupees (16.5 billion US dollars) in its refining and petrochemical sectors in the next three fiscal years, Indo-Asian News Service reported Sunday.

The company told the media here Sunday that it will raise its refining and petrochemical capacity to 45.5 million tons by 2009- 10 and also engage in projects in India's special economic zones (SEZ) with private companies.

"This will include raising the capacity of (subsidiary company) Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) from 9.69 million to 15 million tons and setting up another 15-million-ton integrated refinery and petrochemicals unit in the proposed Mangalore special economic zone," said Raha.

The new refinery plant will cost over 300 billion rupees (6.98 billion US dollars) and ONGC plans to attract private capital, he said.

Two other plans were 7.5-million-ton capacity unit at Kakinada SEZ in south India's Andhra Pradesh and another 7.5-million-ton refinery at Barmer in west India's Rajasthan, with an investment of 90 billion rupees (2.09 billion US dollars) each.

The company will also invest 150 billion rupees (3.49 billion US dollars) in a liquefied natural gas terminal and power plant in Mangalore of south India's Karnataka.

ONGC, the largest domestic energy company in India, recorded a net profit of 141.75 billion rupees (3.29 billion US dollars) in the 2005-06 fiscal year, up 9 percent over the previous fiscal.

In the 2005-06, ONGC had made 10 oil and gas findings in India, two of which were on-shore, three off-shore and five in deep waters.

The company reported the production of crude oil declined in 2005-06 to 24.4 million tons from a target of 26.6 million tons but gas production rose to 22.6 billion cubic meters against a target of 21.4 billion.

Source: Xinhua