Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and GAIL (India) are much interested in acquiring a stake in the Kochi petrochemical project.
The Rs. 50 billion project is being jointly implemented by Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) and South Korea based LG Chemicals, BPCL Chairman and Managing Director RK Singh said while addressing media after the Petrotech Conference.
While LG Chemical holds a 51 percent stake, the rest 49 percent stake is with BPCL, he said. However, he added that the holding structure of the complex is yet not final, as they have yet not taken a decision of introducing more partners.
He added that LG has been delegated the task of developing the petrochemical complex.
Establishment of the petrochemical complex would take place alongside the Kochi refinery’s Rs. 145 billion capacity enhancement drive, aimed at enhancing the refinery’s capacity from existing 9.5 million tons to 15.5 million tons by 2015-16.
The refinery’s expansion would see establishment of a 10.5 million ton crude distillation unit, a 4.3 million ton diesel hadrotreater, a 3.48 million ton delayed coker, a 3 million ton vacuum gasoil hydrotreater and a 2.2 million ton fluid catalytic cracker (FCC) unit, having an annual propylene production capacity of around 2.15 million tons.
As a part of the project, a petrochemical fluid catalytic cracker capacitated to produce 500 tmtpa of propylene would be set up, which would extend a base to BPCL, enabling it to expand into petrochemical space. On completion, this cracker would be merged with the refinery expansion project.
Mr. Singh said upon its likely completion by December 2015, the petrochemical project would go functional by March 2016. The complex would aid production of high-value items like absorbent polymers, which find utility in production of diapers and acrylic acid, which are not produced in India at present.
Source:
http://www.fibre2fashion.com/news/textile-news/newsdetails.aspx?news_id=117046
