Naphtha cracker project at Indian Oil's Panipat complex dedicated to nation

New Delhi, Feb 15 (ANI): Rolling out the canvas for expansion of its operations through downstream integration into petrochemicals, India's largest Naphtha Cracker plant at Indian Oil's Panipat Complex was today dedicated to the nation by Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister S Jaipal Reddy.

Speaking on the occasion, Reddy said Naphtha Cracker is commissioned in 46 months, which compares with the Global standard for similar capacity plants and is ahead of average time taken in setting up similar units in India.

"Also, with the completion of the Petrochemicals Complex in Panipat, Indian Oil has crossed a major milestone in realizing its aspiration to emerge as an integrated and diversified company," said Reddy.

" Indian Oil has transformed from being a pure petroleum company to becoming a global energy player with a vision to become a globally admired energy leader as with capacity expansion of 1.5 MMTPA at Haldia and 3 MMTPA at Panipat, the refining capacity of Indian Oil has gone up to 54.2 MMTPA and group refining capacity has increased to 65.7 MMTPA - making Indian Oil the nation's number one refiner," he added.

Reddy expressed hope that with the commissioning of Grassroots Refinery at Paradip in 2012, the group refining capacity will further increase to 80.7 MMTPA and Indian Oil will continue to be the key leader in refining.

The petroleum sector in India is acting as a lighthouse to development. It provides the true impetus to progress and prosperity. Petroleum and Petrochemicals have been the indicator of growth of nations across the globe.

The naphtha cracker complex built at a cost of Rs.14, 439 crore will provide significant impetus to India's leading Fortune-500 Company's ambitious foray into petrochemicals. The naphtha cracker is designed to produce 800,000 TPA of ethylene.

The naphtha would be sourced from Indian Oil's Gujarat Refinery in western India and Panipat and Mathura Refineries in north.

The Naphtha Cracker Unit at Panipat will produce 800 KTA of Ethylene and 600 KTA of Propylene, which will act as feed for downstream polymer units like Polypropylene Unit (600,000 MTPA), Linear Low Density/ High Density Polyethylene Swing Unit (350,000 MTPA), High Density Polyethylene unit (300,000 MTPA) and Mono Ethylene Glycol unit (300,000 MTPA).

These polymer products will be used for manufacture of moulded plastic containers/barrels, heavy duty films, stretch wrap films, shopping bags, automobile parts, pipes and sheets, moulded furniture, Yarn and Fibre and many morehousehold and industrial items. (ANI)