India's L&T Secures $448 Million Order from OMPL to Set Up Aromatics Complex

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--India's engineering, technology, and manufacturing major Larsen & Toubro Limited (BSE:500510) (L&T) (Mumbai) has received a $448 million order from ONGC Mangalore Petrochemicals Limited (OMPL) for an aromatics complex to be developed at the Mangalore Special Economic Zone (SEZ), in the southern Indian state of Karnataka.

OMPL is a special purpose vehicle set up for the project by Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (BSE:500312) (ONGC) (New Delhi), India's largest oil exploration and production company, and subsidiary Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals Limited (BSE:500109) (MRPL) (Mangalore, Karnataka). The engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract was awarded to the Hydrocarbon Mid and Downstream Business group of L&T's engineering and construction division. The group faced stiff competition from leading global EPC companies.

The aromatics complex is scheduled for commissioning in 2012, and the project involves setting up nine process units that include a naphtha hydro-treating unit; a continuous catalytic regeneration and platforming unit; an Isomar unit; and a Parex unit. With naphtha as the raw material, the final products of the complex will include 900,000 tons per year of paraxylene; 275,000 tons per year of benzene; and byproducts such as hydrogen, heavy aromatics, and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). Paraxylene is a critical ingredient required in the production of intermediates used to make polyethylene terephthalate chips and polyester. Similarly, benzene is used to manufacture intermediates required to produce nylon, plastics, polymers and resins. The naphtha and aromatic-rich feed stream will be sourced from MRPL's refinery, which is also located in the Mangalore SEZ.

The scope of work under the terms of the contract include the residual basic design, detailed engineering, procurement, construction, fabrication, installation, pre-commissioning, commissioning, testing, and the performance test run. When completed, the aromatics complex will be the largest such project in south India. Further, the paraxylene unit will be the single largest paraxylene unit set up in India.

The aromatics project will be based on the market-leading technologies of UOP LLC (Des Plaines, Illinois), which is a part of Honeywell Specialty Materials (Morristown, New Jersey), which itself is a strategic business unit of diversified technology and manufacturing company Honeywell International Incorporated (NYSE:HON) (Morristown, New Jersey). UOP will supply the project with the technology and its associated basic engineering services and equipment. A few of the UOP technologies that will be integrated in the project are the UOP Isomar™ Process, the UOP CCR Platforming™ Process, the UOP Tatoray™ Process, the UOP Parex™ Process, and the Shell Sulfolane™ Process.

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