Numaligarh Refinery tripling capacity to dominate Eastern India fuel market by 2027

India's newest Maharatna refiner, Numaligarh Refinery Limited, is betting on a three-fold capacity jump to capture a dominant share of fuel sales across Eastern and Northeastern India, its chairman said.

The state-owned company's flagship expansion will lift refining capacity from 3 million metric tonnes per annum to 9 MMTPA by March 2027, with physical progress already at 87.1%, NRL Chairman Ranjit Rath told journalists.

Strategic push into Bengal and eight northeastern states

The expanded refinery will enable NRL to cater to eastern India, specifically West Bengal, and the entire northeastern region spanning eight states, where fuel demand has been climbing steadily, Mr. Rath explained. He is also Chairman-cum-Managing Director of Oil India Limited, which holds NRL as a subsidiary.

Once the expansion project stabilises after commissioning, the company plans to widen its operations into neighbouring countries, though such stabilisation "takes time," Mr. Rath cautioned. NRL already operates a product pipeline from Siliguri in West Bengal to supply diesel to Bangladesh.

Assam Accord roots and cross-border fuel links

NRL is known as the Assam Accord Refinery because its establishment was written into the 1985 agreement that ended a violent six-year agitation to remove undocumented foreigners from the state. The refinery, based in Golaghat district in eastern Assam, is India's only facility supplying high-altitude diesel to Bhutan.

The company hopes to restart fuel exports to Myanmar once normality returns to the civil war-torn country, Mr. Rath said.

Financial leap after Maharatna elevation

Elevated from Miniratna Category-1 to Navaratna status in December 2025, NRL reported a 17.69% increase in net worth for the 2025-26 financial year compared to the previous year, while profit after tax surged more than 90% to reach ₹3,057 crore, Mr. Rath disclosed at the company's 33rd annual general meeting.

Source: The Hindu