Indian Oil to commission new naphtha crackers to serve petrochemicals industry

27-Aug-05

The State-run Indian Oil Corp is planning to invest in a new petrochemicals unit at Panipat that will process 500,000 tonnes of naphtha annually. Additionally it will also build a cracker by 2008 that will refine 2.5 million tonnes of naphtha per year. Both the units will receive the naphtha required from IOC's 150,000-bpd Mathura refinery and the Panipat refinery. The refinery at Panipat is estimated to refine 240,000 bpd by January and 300,000 bpd in three years. The Asian naphtha market has been rejuvenated and is not in a miserable state anymore with Chinese demands hoisting naphtha's premium at the market exchanges. The country's naphtha exports have risen by 34 percent to 2.93 million tonnes in the fiscal year to March 2005 and 15 per cent in July. A further rise of three million tonnes of India's naphtha production is foreseen to be well absorbed by petrochemicals facilities.