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Pratim Ranjan Bose

Kolkata, Feb. 6

IndianOil may seek board approval for the Rs 5,000-crore paraxylene unit at the Haldia refinery in March. Haldia will be IOC’s fourth such facility.

Parazylene, a petrochemical product, will find ready use as a feedstock in the neighbouring MCC PTA India Corporation Pvt. Ltd — a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation for producing purified terephthalic acid (PTA).

The facility will be located in the 86-acre additional land recently acquired by the company in Haldia from the port trust authorities. IOC is currently commissioning Rs 1,600-crore hydrocracker project in Haldia and has recently firmed up plans for setting up a delayed coker unit for increasing the yield.

IOC is setting up a full-fledged petrochemicals complex, including naphtha cracker at Panipat. The project is due to be commissioned in October-November 2009. Paradip will have 15 million tonne refinery and aromatics facility producing paraxylene and benzene. The construction of the refining and aromatics complex is expected to begin in April-May.

IOC board recently approved a proposal for setting up a 360-tonne per annum paraxylene unit at Koyali refinery in Gujarat at an estimated cost of Rs 2,000 crore.

“The Haldia paraxylene plant will be much bigger than Koyali unit. We are hopeful to finalise the capacity and seek in-principle approval from the board in March this year,” a company source told Business Line.

When contacted director refinery Mr B.N. Bankapur did not comment on the proposed paraxylene facility in Haldia. However, he emphasised that the company was taking fast moves to emerge as a major player in the petrochemicals sector.

“We have completed over 50 per cent of the naphtha cracker project in Panipat in the last 14 months, and confident to commission the project in October-November. We are months away from seeking final approval for commissioning of the Paradip refining-cum-petrochemicals complex,” he said.

Meanwhile, after a two-year delay since the scheduled date of commissioning, the Rs 1,178-crore Paradip-Haldia crude pipeline, including the SPM and storage facility at Paradip, may start functioning in next three weeks.

The project will be a shot in the arm for the ongoing projects at the Haldia refinery. The pipeline will reduce the cost of transportation of crude leading to a net positive impact of $1-1.5 on every barrel of crude processed by the refinery.

More Stories on : New Projects | Petrochemicals

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