IndianOil launches ‘PROPEL’ range of petrochemicals

IndianOil has launched it’s ‘PROPEL” range of petrochemical products, after successful completion of its world scale petrochemical projects in record time. The company, acknowledged as the leader in the petroleum downstream sector in the country, is expected to bring to play its formidable reach, network and infrastructure into the petrochemicals business. “Every segment that we operate in, whether it is lubricants, automotive fuels, LPG or Aviation we have established ourselves as leaders. PROPEL will be the latest in the bouquet of our brand offerings and is backed by the same intensity of passion that has helped us capture the hearts and minds of our customers, said Mr. B.M.Bansal, Chairman, IndianOil. Having identified Petrochemicals business as the prime driver of future growth, IndianOil had earmarked Rs. 30,000 crore (US$ 6.8 bln) investments during 2007-12 in world-class plants and a countrywide marketing infrastructure. These plants have been designed to use feedstock from IOC’s refineries, to produce a wide range of value-added petrochemical products and intermediates for segments as diverse as detergents, polyesters and polymers/plastic. IndianOil had projected a turnover of Rs. 18,000 crore from its petrochemicals business by the year 2011-12, making it one of the largest petrochemicals players in the country within a short period of time. Beginning with low-investment projects for high-value products such a Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether (MTBE) and Butene-1 at its Koyali Refinery, IndianOil went on to commission the world’s largest single-train Kerosene-to LAB plant, again at Koyali, in the year 2004, following it up with an integrated PX/PTA plant at Panipat in 2006. The latest to go on stream is a world-scale Naphtha Cracker Complex, a mother plant for polymers (plastics), at Panipat this year with four major downstream units for production of polypropylene, high-density polyethylene, linear low-density polyethylene and mono ethylene glycol, all of them with extensive applications down the line. Built at a cost of Rs 14,400 crore, it is the largest operating cracker capacity in India today and the naphtha feed for the unit is being sourced internally from IndianOil’s Koyali, Panipat and Mathura refineries. With the domestic petrochemicals industry growing at 13-15% in the last two decades, and considering the large potential for the future, IndianOil has set up a dedicated Petrochemicals Group for marketing petrochemicals, with five exclusive sub-groups classified product-wise (LAB, PTA, Polymers) and function-wise (Logistics & Exports), in addition to zonal and field set-ups to offer reliable service. The Corporation has also laid out a web-based marketing strategy, showcasing its capability to manufacture and market the full range of petrochemicals. A dedicated technical team, backed by a product application development centre at Panipat, will guide customers in use of PROPEL grades, trying out new product-lines, etc. The polymer warehouse at Panipat, Asia’s biggest, has 15 online bagging and palletising machines, each with a capacity to bag 1,200 bags per hour, in addition to 50 loading bays with fork-lift operations. The team overseeing the bagging operations, warehouse management and other supply chain issues has been trained abroad. Since the warehouse will handle a large number of grades being supplied to thousands of plastics processors, an excellent display & tracking system has been put in place to ensure that the right grade reaches the right customer. Transport contracts are also in place to reach consignments across 327 districts in India. IndianOil is setting up a petrochemicals 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 state-of-the-art 120,000 tpa Styrene Butadiene Rubber (SBR) unit, the first in India, is underway at Panipat, as a joint venture with TSRC Corporation, Taiwan, and Marubeni Corporation, Japan, to further strengthen IndianOil’s presence in specialty petrochemicals.