Foray into petrochem to raise IOC turnover to US$60 bln by 2012

24-Oct-05

Hydrocarbon major Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) plans to raise its turnover from US$35 bln to US$60 bln by 2011-12. This increase in turnover will mostly be fuelled by forward integration into petrochemical sector, as the company explores new areas for achieving higher growth. Though IOC accounts for 42% of the national refining capacity, the changed environment has made forward integration into petrochemicals by exploiting the refinery-petrochemicals interface to add value, imperative. To achieve the target, the company intends to invest over US$15 billion in the next couple of years. IOC's business development efforts are now focused on globalisation of marketing operations, export of products and services, diversification into natural gas marketing and linear integration-both upwards into oil exploration and production and downwards into petrochemicals. IOC has drawn up a US$5.7 bln petrochemicals master plan for the development of world scale petrochemical hubs at Panipat in Haryana and Paradip in Orissa.