Indian Oil Corp to double revenues from the petrochem business to Rs 15,000 crore in 2011

24-Sep-10

Betting on the business that made its private sector rival Reliance Industries (RIL) a behemoth, state-owned Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) today unveiled the blueprint for doubling revenues from the petrochemicals business to Rs 15,000 crore during the next fiscal. IOC plans to capture 20% of India’s market share in polymers in 2011-12. IOC’s turnover from petrochem business was of about Rs 3,000 crore in 2009-10, expected to double in 2010-11. Next year, IOC plans to touch Rs 15,000 crore when its recently commissioned naphtha cracker plant adjacent to Panipat refinery will operate at full capacity, enabling it to grow market share from 5% in the 3.8 mln ton polymer market. Beginning with low-investment projects for high-value products such as methyl tertiary butly ether (MTBE) and Butene-1 at its Koyali refinery in Gujarat, IOC went on to commission the world's largest single-train kerosene-to LAB (Linear alkyl benzene) plant at Koyali in 2004. It was followed by an integrated PX/PTA plant at Panipat in 2006. While linear alkyl benzene (LAB) is used to manufacture detergents, PX/PTA (paraxylene/purified terephthalic acid) are used as polyester intermediates. The latest to go on stream is a world-class, Rs 14,400 crore naphtha cracker complex, a mother plant for polymers (plastics), set up at Panipat this year. IOC is setting up a petrochemical complex at its upcoming grassroots refinery at Paradip in Orissa to be commissioned by 2011-12. The 15 mln tpa refinery will have facilities for production of front-end petrochemicals, including paraxylene, polypropylene and styrene. A 120,000 tpa styrene butadine rubber (SBR) unit, the first in India, is underway at Panipat, being built through joint venture with TSRC Corp of Taiwan and Marubeni Corp of Japan to further strengthen IOC's presence in speciality petrochemicals.