OREANDA-NEWS. February 08, 2011. Indian Oil Corp (IOC) is interested in building a USD 5 billion refinery in Turkey and is currently carrying out feasibility work on the project, India's junior trade minister, Jyotiraditya Scindia, said on Friday. IOC and India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) are interested in exploring for oil and natural gas in Turkey, Scindia also told reporters.

IOC "is looking at setting up a 15 million tonne refinery company in Turkey," Scindia said, referring to the volume of crude oil a facility could process in a year. "They are evaluating the feasibility of this."

The Delhi-based company had previously planned to build a refinery with Turkey's Calik Holding at the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, where pipelines carrying Iraqi and Azeri crude terminate.

Plans for that plant were put on hold during the global financial crisis in 2008, and Scindia did not say whether IOC would partner again with Calik. India imports about 70 percent of its oil and gas and is interested in exploring for new sources, Scindia said.

Turkey has tiny amounts of gas and oil reserves, requiring it to import about 95 percent of the fuels. But the government has agreed in recent years with U.S.-based Chevron and Brazilian state oil company Petrobras to look for gas off its Black Sea coast.