(ET)
India’s biggest oil refiner has developed refining processes that may help it save at least $1.5 billion in costs as well as challenge global giants in the technology leasing business. State-run Indian Oil Corp., which controls nearly half of the country’s refineries, has created its own processes using catalysts and hydro-cracking to convert crude oil into fuels such as gasoline, diesel and liquefied petroleum gas, according to the company’s head of R&D. That means it won’t have to license technology anymore from the likes of major manufacturing companies such as Honeywell International Inc.
“We were at the mercy of a few multinational suppliers,” S.S.V. Ramakumar, director of research and development at Indian Oil, known as IOC, said in an interview in Faridabad, 20 miles away from the nation’s capital city. “Now we have become a technology developer and going forward, we will become a technology provider.”
