IOC to award contracts for plant commissioning at Panipat and Paradip

03-May-06

Indian Oil Corporation plans to award contracts for the mother unit of the proposed naphtha cracker cum polymer project at Panipat by May 15. The total bid value for the petrochemicals project is approximately Rs 11,900 crore, from the previously estimated project cost at Rs 6,300 crore. The board has allowed IOC to award the contracts at a higher cost than the initial estimates, but is yet to finalise the total costs of the project. The core project, divided in two packages, has received only two bids. The scheduled commissioning date has been delayed by 14 months to March-April 2009, as the main bidders have asked for a minimum of 35 months for project completion. Panipat is estimated to receive a major chunk of IOC's proposed capital expenditure of Rs 7,500 crore in 2006-07. The project capacity is estimated at: 8,00,000 tpa of ethylene 5,75,000 tpa of propylene 3,50,000 tpa of linear low density poly ethylene (LLDPE) 3,00,000 tpa high density polyethylene (HDPE) 2 plants with capacity of 3,00,000 tpa of poly propylene (PP) 2,50,000 tpa of mono-ethylene glycol (MEG) IOC has also received approval from its board for the 15 million ton refinery-cum petrochemicals project at Paradip, and has started working towards commissioning of the project. The company has already received bids for technology licences and is expected to award PMC and EPC contracts by September 2006. Expenditure of almost Rs 600 crore is expected to be incurred towards pre-construction activities like ground levelling, dredging, in 2006-07.