NEW DELHI, Dec 18 (Reuters) - India's Chennai Petroleum Corp (CPCL) (CHPC.NS) , opens new tab plans to expand its south India-based Manali refinery's capacity to 280,000 barrels per day from 210,000 bpd and enter fuel retailing as part of a growth strategy, a top executive said on Thursday.

The company is a subsidiary of the country's top refiner, the state-run Indian Oil Corp (IOC.NS) , opens new tab, and sells almost all of its transportation fuels - diesel and gasoline - to its parent, which has a robust local retail network.

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Under the new growth initiative, the Chennai-based company will foray into the retail business with 300 fuel stations by mid-2028, said managing director H Shankar.

"CPCL 2.0 will be a different version of what industry has seen it as a standalone refinery," he said at an industry event.

He said the company hopes to get a feasibility study on the Manali refinery expansion by October 2026, which will help decide cost and configuration of new units.

Shankar also said CPCL is in the process of finalising the configuration of its planned 180,000 bpd refinery and linked petrochemicals units at Nagapattinam in southern Tamil Nadu state.

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/indias-chennai-petroleum-corp-raise-capacity-key-manali-refinery-exec-says-2025-12-18/