The board of Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) cleared a proposal to set up a 9 million tonne (MT) refinery at Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu that may see an investment of about Rs 31,500 crore. This comes at a time when the company expects fuel demand to pick up during the fourth quarter of the current financial year. Already, petrol demand is around 105 per cent of what it was last year and the company expects diesel demand to be more than 100 per cent in the fourth quarter, as per reports. The new refinery will be a joint venture between Chennai Petroleum Corporation Ltd (CPCL) and IOC. Both IOC and CPCL will together hold 50 per cent stake (about 25 per cent stake each) in the joint venture and the balance 50 per cent will be held by a strategic or financial partner. The company said that already 650 acre of land necessary for the project is available with the company and the remaining 615 acre are on the advanced stage of acquisition.