First it was Reliance Industries (RIL), which put India on a global refining map and now it is Hindustan Petroleum Corp (HPCL) that’s planning its third coastal refinery to take advantage of growing demand of petrol and diesel in international markets.

NDTV learns that HPCL, India's third largest state-run refiner, is now planning a new refinery to be located somewhere along Maharashtra coast and meetings with officials at Maharashtra Industrial Development Corp have been quite fruitful.

In fact the state government is also interested in offering land for the multi-billion project, which will help achieve sales of 37 million tonnes per year by 2014 and cut dependence on other refiners.

While HPCL management could not be reached for details, sources say the refiner is eyeing a minimum capacity of 5 million tonnes a year, of course to be expanded further and with an initial investment of Rs 15,000-Rs 20,000 crore.

Success and failures are part of any company and so is for HPCL.

After many setbacks for its Bhatinda refinery, it finally got Lakshmi Mittal as partner and post this success, the company seems to have revived its plan for a second refinery in Maharashtra.

However, as its MoU with Oman for the refinery has expired, will HPCL look for another partner for the new refinery or go alone?