India is amongst the fastest growing petrochemicals markets in the world.
Taking this into consideration and to enhance its downstream integration, IndianOil is focusing on increasing its presence in the domestic petrochemicals sector besides
the overseas markets through systematic expansion of customer base and innovative supply logistics
Petrochemicals have been identified as a prime driver of future growth by IndianOil.
The Corporation is envisaging an investment of Rs 30,000 crore in the petrochemicals business in the next few years. These projects will utilise product streams from the existing
refineries of IndianOil, thereby achieving better exploitation of the hydrocarbon value chain.
Beginning with a low-investment, high-value projects such as Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether (MTBE)
and Butene-1 at Gujarat Refinery, Vadodara, IndianOil has set up a world-scale Linear
Alkyl Benzene (LAB) plant at Gujarat Refinery and an integrated Paraxylene/Purified
Terephthalic Acid (PX/PTA) plant at Panipat.
A Naphtha Cracker complex with downstream polymer units is also in operation at Panipat.
These initiatives are designed to catapult IndianOil among the top three petrochemicals players in Southeast Asia in the long term.
In order to penetrate the petrochemicals market effectively, a separate Strategic Business Unit
(SBU) has been created in IndianOil for marketing of petrochemicals. This SBU has five exclusive
sub-groups, classified product wise (LAB, Aromatics & Chemicals, Polymers) and function wise (Logistics & Exports),
in addition to regional/field set-ups to offer reliable customer service. This SBU has already
established IndianOil's LAB business both in India and abroad. Today, IndianOil is a major
supplier to the key players in the detergent industry, both national and international. Similarly,
in PTA business, all major
domestic customers are catered to by IndianOil. IndianOil is catering to polymer industry in domestic as well as international level. This SBU is exporting products to 76 countries. A robust logistics model has been the key to IndianOil's success story and facilities have been put in place for seamless product dispatches to customers by rail, road and sea.
Mega Plants:
Linear Alkyl Benzene (LAB) plant, Gujarat Refinery:
IndianOil made its big-ticket entry into petrochemicals with the commissioning of the country's largest Linear Alkyl Benzene (LAB) plant at Gujarat Refinery in August 2004. It is also the largest grassroots single train Kerosene-to-LAB unit in the world, with an installed capacity of 1,20,000 metric tonnes per annum (MTPA). Currently, two grades of LAB - HMW (high molecular weight) and LMW (low molecular weight) are being produced for manufacture of environment friendly biodegradable detergents.
The quality of the LAB produced here has found wide acceptance in the domestic and overseas markets
Built at a cost of Rs. 1,248 crore and commissioned in a record 24 months' time, the plant produces superior quality LAB for manufacturing environment-friendly biodegradable detergents. The key raw materials for the plant, catering to domestic as well as export market requirements meeting the
latest and most stringent quality standards, are Kerosene and Benzene produced at Koyali Refinery.
Paraxylene/Purified Terephthalic Acid (PX/PTA), Panipat:
The most technologically advanced plant in the country, the PX/PTA plant marks IndianOil's major step towards forward integration in the hydrocarbon value chain by manufacturing Paraxylene (PX) from captive Naphtha and thereafter, converting it into Purified Terephthalic Acid (PTA).
The PTA Plant is the single largest unit in India with a world-scale capacity of 5,53,000 MTPA, achieving economy of scale. The process package for the PTA plant was prepared by erstwhile M/s Dupont, UK (now M/s. Invista) and that of the Paraxylene Unit was prepared by M/s UOP, USA. M/s EIL and
M/s Toyo Engineering were the Project Management Consultants (PMC) for executing the PTA and PX respectively.
The Paraxylene plant is designed to process 5,00,000 MTPA of heart-cut Naphtha to produce about 3,60,000 MTPA of PX. Naphtha is sourced from IndianOil's Panipat and Mathura
refineries, for which Naphtha splitter units are set up at the respective refineries. The PTA unit produces 5,53,000 MTPA of Purified Terephthalic Acid from Paraxylene.
Naphtha Cracker Plant, Panipat:
Continuing the foray of Make in India initiative and horizontal integration in the Hydrocarbon value chain, IndianOil established a world scale Naphtha Cracker plant.
India's one of the largest world-class Panipat Naphtha Cracker, built at a cost of Rs.14,439 Crore was commissioned in January, 2010. lndianOil's People, with dedication and determination, completed the construction and commissioning of the project in a record time of 46 months. It's flawless commissioning compares itself with the best in the world .
The Plant is designed to synergize with existing Panipat Refinery.The feed for the unit is sourced internally from Indian Oil's Koyali, Panipat, Barauni and Mathura refineries. The Panipat Naphtha Cracker complex comprises the following downstream units - Polypropylene Unit (Capacity: 600 KTA), High Density Polyethylene Unit (HDPE) (capacity: 300KTA), Swing Unit (350 KTA, Linear Low Density Poly Ethylene with HDPE), Mono Ethylene Glycol (MEG) plant (capacity: 325 KTA), Butadiene Unit (130KTA) and Butene unit (20 KTA). KTA is thousand tonnes per Annum
The cracker produces over 800 KTA per annum of ethylene, 600 KTA of Propylene, 130 KTA of Benzene, and other products viz. Pyrolysis Fuel Oil, components of MS,LPG, Diesel etc.
The Polypropylene (PP) unit is designed to produce high quality and high value niche grades including Bi-axially Oriented Polypropylene (BOPP) (used for food packaging and laminations), high clarity random co-polymers (used for food containers and thin walled products) and super impact co-polymer grades (used for batteries, automobile parts, luggage and heavy duty transport containers). Polyethylene is used for making injection moulded caps, heavy duty crates, containers, bins, textile bobbins, luggage ware, thermoware, storage bins, pressure pipes (for gas and water), small blow-moulded bottles, jerry cans, etc. Butadiene is used for making of synthetic rubber.
Indian Oil is setting up a world class 700 KTA Polypropylene Plant at a cost of Rs. 3150 crore at Paradip, Odisha to support plastic industry of Eastern Region. This is likely to be commissioned by December 2018.
