Major Petrochemical Projects Under Way in India

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--India's petrochemical industry is expanding rapidly, and according to research from the Tata Strategic Management Group, the industry is expected to grow 12%-15% by 2011-12. To achieve this, the industry would require an investment of about $15 billion in addition to an increase in production capacities. India's petroleum refining capacity also is expanding swiftly, and as a result, there will be extra naphtha feedstock for the petrochemical industry. A decrease in the use of naphtha in the fertilizer and power sectors leaves another sizeable quantity of naphtha for the crackers already being expanded by petrochemical majors.

Some of the major domestic players investing heavily in the petrochemical industry are: Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) (New Delhi), Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) (Mumbai, Maharashtra) and Haldia Petrochemicals Limited (HPL) (Kolkata, West Bengal).

Gas Authority of India Limited

GAIL has a gas-based petrochemical plant at Pata, Uttar Pradesh. Based on technology from Mitsui (Tokyo, Japan), the plant has a polymer capacity of 310 kilo-tons per annum (KTPA). The mechanical completion of another high-density polyethylene (HDPE) plant at the same site has been achieved. After its commissioning, the unit will have a total capacity of 410 KTPA.

GAIL will construct the $1.24 billion Brahmaputra gas cracker plant in Dibrugarh, Assam, in a joint venture with Oil India Limited (Duliajan, Assam), Numaligarh Refinery Limited (Guwahati, Assam), and the Assam state government. The plant will have a capacity of 220 KTPA of ethylene, 110 KTPA of linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE), 110 KTPA of HDPE, and 60 KTPA of polypropylene. The project is scheduled to be completed by 2011-12.

Haldia Petrochemicals Limited

HPL is presently expanding its cracker capacity from 520 KTPA to 670 KTPA at a cost of $210 million. The completion of this expansion project will also see an increase in the plant's downstream product capacities. HPL currently produces 260 KTPA of LLDPE, 300 KTPA of HDPE, and 300 KTPA of polypropylene. However, the project is behind schedule because of civil shortages.

Reliance Industries Limited

Next to its refinery site at Jamnagar, Gujarat, RIL is building a massive integrated cracker and petrochemical complex. Built at a cost of $3 billion, it will have a capacity of 2 million TPA. The cracker will use off-gases and other byproducts from the RIL refineries as feedstock and produce ethylene, propylene and other downstream products. The complex is scheduled to go on-stream by 2011-12. RIL is also studying the possibility of producing every value-added product in the C1-C8 chain.

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