IOC's foray into petrochemicals faces delays

11-Nov-05

Delay in finalising contracts seems likely to delay the completion schedule of the proposed Rs 6,300 crore naphtha cracker and downstream polymer unit project of Indian Oil Corporation by at least a year. IOC is unlikely to issue work order for the core project before January 2006, for which the bidders have already indicated that they would require 34 months. This sets the completion date to November 2008, though the original schedule for completion was November 2007. The entire project is divided into 13 packages. While the contract finalisation process for 11 peripheral or smaller projects are well on schedule, the core project has received lukewarm response from bidders. Irrespective of several rounds of postponement of the due dates for receiving bids, so far only two bids have been received. Discussions are still on with the bidders over finer details on the technical aspects. While hoping to reach at a conclusion over the same by next week, IOC would take at least two months for opening the financial bids and issuing the work order The project is a part of IOC's ongoing investment programme of Rs 11,800 crore for doubling refining capacity to 12 million tons, creation of supply logistics and setting up a petrochem facility at Panipat.