Indian firms plan to invest $27 billion to boost refining capacity by 2025

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India state refiners are set to invest 2 trillion rupees ($26.96 billion) to boost oil refining capacity by 20% in Asia's third-largest economy by 2025, junior oil minister, Rameswar Teli, told lawmakers on Wednesday.

India, the world's third-biggest oil importer and consumer has refining capacity of about 249 million tonnes a year, equivalent to about 5 million barrels per day (bpd). Refining capacity is expected to climb to 298 million tonnes a year by 2025, Teli said in a written reply.

"The refining industry has been modernized and upgraded continuously with the indigenous and imported technologies for refining cost reduction" and product upgrading, he said.

The country's top refiner, Indian Oil Corp, in its latest annual report said it would boost its annual oil refining capacity to 87.55 million tonnes by 2024/25 from the current 70.05 million tonnes to meet growing demand for petroleum products.

India will be the main driver of rising demand for energy over the next two decades, accounting for 25% of global growth, and is set to overtake the European Union as the world's third-biggest energy consumer by 2030, the International Energy Agency said in a report earlier this year.

It is also nearly doubling its 3.2 million tonnes a year petrochemical capacity by adding another 3.1 million tonnes by 2024/25.

($1 = 74.1900 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Nidhi Verma; Editing by Bernadette Baum)