The company, which recently got clearance from the Reserve Bank of India to acquire equity stake in an Iranian oil field, is planning to more than double its refining capacity to 80 million tonnes from 35 million tonnes at present within the Tenth Five Year Plan.

"We are augmenting all our infrastructure and making strategic tie-ups with various companies in the field to achieve the objective," highly placed sources said.

At least 15 million tonnes capacity would be added shortly with the commissioning of the new refinery at Nagapatnam in Tamil Nadu with a capacity of nine million tonnes and another at Paradip with a capacity of six to nine million tonnes, sources said.

"We have tied-up with Reliance Petroleum for marketing 50 per cent of their output till the administered price mechanism (APM)remains in operation till 2002, sources added. This apart, the company has entered into a tie-up with Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) to increase drilling operation, sources said. With widespread fluctuations in international crude oil prices, the IOC would have to increase its own drilling capacity to offer cheap products at competitive rates, sources said citing recent hike of crude oil prices in international market from 10 per barrel to 30 per barrel within a short span,Disclosing that increasing market share would be its thrust area, IOC sources claimed that it aimed to introduce reforms in retail sector to increase its market share to at least 65 per cent from nearly 55 per cent at present by becoming more customer focussed in the coming days.

"We are anticipating tremendous growth in the next millennium and have already identified to implement projects worth Rs 60,000 crore within next three to five years," he said adding Rs 10,000 crore worth projects are already under different stages ofcommissioning. The company, which has the largest network of 178 stores, more than 7000 petrol stations, largest LPG dealership network of 3000 and another 3000 dealership network for kerosene in India, plans to further add to this figure as part of its retail sector reforms. Regarding diversification programmes, sources said IOC is slowly and gradually trying to become a diversified company with presence in petrochemcials, power sector and upstream and downstream projects through joint ventures.