Aiming to boost the refining infrastructure of its largest oil marketing company Indian Oil Corporation ltd (IOC), the Government plans to take its production capacity to up to 80 million tonnes from the existing 65 million tonnes and that of its Panipat refinery to 21 million tonnes from the 15 million tonnes per annum.
Petroleum Minister M Veerappa Moily announced this while inaugurating the country’s first-ever `890 crore Styrene Butadiene Rubber (SBR) project at Panipat refinery-cum-petrochemical complex.
The SBR project which has come up with the joint collaboration of IOC, Taiwan’s TSRC Corporation and Japan’s marketing giant Marubeni Corporation, would produce SBR, which India has been importing all this while.
Moily said that with the setting up of the SBR plant - which is governed by the joint venture company Indian Synthetic Rubber ltd (ISRl) - Government would save up to $360 million in the first year of its operation.
SBR is used for making tyres and fan belts and the technology for producing it is available with a select few nations - Taiwan being one of them.
While TSRC has provided the technical know how to produce SBR, IOC would provide the Butadiene feedstock from its Naphtha Cracker Plant (situated at Panipat refinery), while Marubeni would market the products which would roll out from the new unit.
The ISRl unit currently has a capacity of 120 KTA, which is expected to go up to 180 KTA by 2015. India currently imports 220 KTA of SBR and with the commissioning of the plant, it would save precious foreign exchange.
Regarding capacity expansion of IOC as well as its Panipat refinery, company Chairman R S Butola when asked about the timeline, said that nothing was fixed as of now since the expansion plan was at a planning stage.
Moily meanwhile exorted IOC to develop all its refineries across the country as petrochemical hubs which would provide greater job opportunities to the local population, even as he said that manpower with technical knowledge should be given training and preference in such hubs.
IOC is also exploring the possibility of expanding capacity at its Koyali refinery in Gujarat from 13.7 million tonne to 18 million tonne, at a cost of about `5,500 crore.
“With grass-root refineries at Paradip (15 million tonne) and Nagarjuna Oil Corporation’s Cuddalore unit (6 million tonnes) and expansion of some of the existing refineries, the total refining capacity is expected to touch around 271.2 million tonnes by the end of the current 12th plan period (2017). Further, it is expected to go up to 332.9 million tonne at the end of 13th Plan,” the Petroleum Minister said.