Match List – I with List – II and choose the correct answer using the code given below the lists. List – I (Refinery) A. Nayara B. Manali C. Numaligarh D. Tatipaka List – II (State) 1. Assam 2. Gujarat 3. Andhra Pradesh 4. Tamil Nadu Code :
- (a)A-4, B-2, C-3, D-1
- (b)A-2, B-4, C-3, D-1
- (c)A-2, B-4, C-1, D-3
- (d)A-4, B-2, C-1, D-3
Correct — C, A-2, B-4, C-1, D-3. Nayara is the Vadinar refinery in Devbhumi Dwarka district of GUJARAT (List-II item 2) — the plant built by Essar Oil and renamed Nayara Energy after a Rosneft-led consortium took control, with a capacity of about 20 million tonnes a year, India's second-largest single-location refinery after Jamnagar. Manali is in north Chennai, TAMIL NADU (item 4), run by Chennai Petroleum Corporation Ltd, a subsidiary of IndianOil, with a capacity of about 10.5 million tonnes a year. Numaligarh sits in Golaghat district of ASSAM (item 1) — Numaligarh Refinery Ltd, a 3 million tonne plant commissioned in 2000 and now being expanded to 9 million tonnes, set up to honour a commitment of the Assam Accord. Tatipaka is in the Godavari delta of ANDHRA PRADESH (item 3), an ONGC mini-refinery that processes condensate from the Krishna-Godavari onshore fields and is India's smallest refinery. Only option (c) carries all four of those pairings.
- (a)A-4, B-2, C-3, D-1 — Wrong on all four. It sends Nayara to Tamil Nadu and Manali to Gujarat, and then also swaps the north-east and south-east pair, putting Numaligarh in Andhra Pradesh and Tatipaka in Assam. If you can place even one refinery confidently, this option falls at once.
- (b)A-2, B-4, C-3, D-1 — The main trap. It gets the first half right — Nayara in Gujarat and Manali in Tamil Nadu — and then swaps the second half, putting Numaligarh in Andhra Pradesh and Tatipaka in Assam. Numaligarh is unambiguously in Assam (Golaghat district, on the Assam oil belt that also carries Digboi, Guwahati and Bongaigaon), and Tatipaka is in the Godavari delta of Andhra Pradesh.
- (d)A-4, B-2, C-1, D-3 — The mirror-image trap. It gets Numaligarh-Assam and Tatipaka-Andhra Pradesh right, but swaps the first pair, placing Nayara in Tamil Nadu and Manali in Gujarat. Nayara's only refinery is Vadinar in Gujarat, and Manali is a neighbourhood of Chennai.
India's refining map has three logics. Field-based refineries sit on the oilfields that feed them — the Assam cluster of Digboi, Guwahati, Bongaigaon and Numaligarh, and ONGC's tiny Tatipaka plant on the Krishna-Godavari onshore fields. Coastal or port-based refineries sit where imported crude lands and refined product can be exported — Vadinar and Jamnagar in Gujarat, Manali at Chennai, Kochi, Mangaluru, Visakhapatnam. Market-based refineries sit near consuming regions inland, such as Mathura, Panipat and Barauni. India runs a little over twenty refineries and is a large net exporter of refined products even though it imports most of its crude.
A four-pair match with four states is really two independent decisions, because the four options split into two right/two wrong halves. Anchor the two you are surest of and eliminate. The single most reliable anchor here is Numaligarh: the name is unmistakably Assamese and the refinery is a well-known Assam Accord commitment, which kills options (a) and (b) at a stroke. Then decide between (c) and (d) on Nayara: it is the former Essar Oil refinery at Vadinar in Gujarat, which leaves (c). The deliberate booby-trap is 'Manali' — the refinery is the Manali industrial suburb of north Chennai, not the hill town in Himachal Pradesh.
- Nayara Energy's only refinery is at Vadinar, Devbhumi Dwarka district, Gujarat — about 20 million tonnes a year, commissioned in 2008 as Essar Oil and renamed after a Rosneft-led consortium acquired it; Rosneft holds roughly 49 per cent
- The Manali refinery in north Chennai, Tamil Nadu, is operated by Chennai Petroleum Corporation Ltd (originally Madras Refineries Ltd, commissioned 1969), a subsidiary of Indian Oil Corporation, with a capacity of about 10.5 million tonnes a year
- Numaligarh Refinery Ltd in Golaghat district, Assam, was a commitment made under the Assam Accord of 1985; it was commissioned in 2000 at 3 million tonnes a year and is being expanded to 9 million tonnes, with Oil India Ltd now the majority shareholder
- Tatipaka in the Godavari delta of Andhra Pradesh is ONGC's mini-refinery, India's smallest, running on gas condensate from the onshore Krishna-Godavari fields
- Gujarat holds India's biggest refining cluster — Reliance's Jamnagar complex (the world's largest refining site), Nayara's Vadinar plant and IndianOil's Koyali refinery
- Current-affairs hook for the October 2025 exam: on 18 July 2025 the European Union's eighteenth sanctions package designated the Vadinar refinery because of its Russian shareholding, which kept Nayara in the news through the months before this paper
Options (b) and (d) each get one half right; the highlighted Numaligarh and Tatipaka rows are what separate them. Only (c) has A-2, B-4, C-1, D-3.
- Reading 'Manali' as the Himachal Pradesh hill station — the refinery is in the Manali industrial area of north Chennai
- Not connecting 'Nayara' with the older name Essar Oil, and therefore failing to place it at Vadinar in Gujarat
- Assuming a refinery called Tatipaka must be small enough to be fictitious — it is real, it is ONGC's, and it is in Andhra Pradesh
UPPSC asks refineries as a bare refinery-to-state match or as a 'which pair is not correctly matched' item; UPSC circles the same ground indirectly — who operates India's refineries, what products come out of them, and how refinery location relates to crude supply and markets.
Consider the following statements: 1. NTPC is the largest power utility in India. 2. ONGC accounts for half of the LPG production in India. 3. Indian Oil Corporation operates all the oil refineries in India. 4. The Indian Ordinance Factory is the largest departmentally run industrial undertaking in the country. Which of these statements is/are correct?
- (a) 1 only
- (b) 2 and 3
- (c) 2, 3 and 4
- (d) 1 and 4
Answer(d) 1 and 4
Same underlying map — who runs India's refineries and where. Its third statement, that Indian Oil operates all the refineries in India, is false precisely because plants like Nayara's Vadinar, CPCL's Manali and NRL's Numaligarh belong to different owners.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Digboi, the site of India's oldest operating oil refinery, is located in which State?
- (a)Assam
- (b)Gujarat
- (c)Andhra Pradesh
- (d)Tamil Nadu
Answer(a) Assam — the Digboi refinery dates from 1901 and lies on the same Assam oil belt as Numaligarh.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The setting up of the Numaligarh Refinery in Assam was a commitment made under which one of the following?
- (a)The Assam Accord of 1985
- (b)The Bodo Accord of 1993
- (c)The Look East Policy of 1991
- (d)The North East Industrial Policy of 1997
Answer(a) The Assam Accord of 1985 — the refinery was commissioned in 2000 in Golaghat district.