Essar's $90 Million Kochi Refinery Contract Expands Hydrocarbons Book to $4.1 Billion

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Written by Richard Finlayson, Senior International Editor for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Essar Projects Limited (EPL) (Dubai/Mumbai) secured a $93 million contract from Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BSE:BPCL) (Mumbai, India). The contract is part of Bharat's expansion drive at the Kochi refinery, and it is one of several that Essar has booked in the hydrocarbons sector.

The scope of the contract, which EPL won in a consortium with GR Engineering (Mumbai), covers the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) for the reactor regenerator package of the 2.2 million-ton-per-annum fluid catalytic cracking unit at the Kochi refinery, which is being planned to expand to a total capacity of 15.5 million tons per annum. The process licensor for the package is Technip-Shaw (OTC:TNHPF) (Paris, France), and the project is scheduled for completion in 24 months.

This project brings the total number of projects secured by EPL in the domestic and international markets to eight, for an order book of about $4.1 billion. Currently, EPL is executing projects in the hydrocarbon sector, including some for Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL) (Mumbai), Jurong Aromatics (Singapore) and Matix Fertilizers (Mumbai).

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