Paradip plant to be major petrochem feedstock supplier: IOC

The upcoming refinery of state-run Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) at Paradip would be a major producer of feedstock for the downstream petrochemical industry, a top official of the company said.

"IOC will branch out into manufacturing of petrochemical feedstock and the Paradip plant will be a major producer," the official told PTI.

The 15-million tonne Paradip refinery will be commissioned very shortly, he said.

According to the official, the plant will house a Rs 3,150-crore polypropylene plant expected to go on stream by 2017.

"IOC is keen to be a big player in the manufacturing of building blocks for the petrochemicals industry," he said.

Projects on the anvil by IOC include an ethylene glycol unit, paraxylene (PX)-PTA and a petrocoke gassification plant.

The plant would help in the development of downstream units by providing inputs, as a result of which the PSU would gain from value addition.

The official said that a downstream expansion to petrochemicals was also planned at the Barauni refinery.

However, he said that there was absence of downstream units near the Panipat refinery in Haryana. As a result, the feedstock travels to the western part of the country and then gets shipped again to the north as finished products.

IOC's big foray into petrochemicals would entail manufacturing of various kinds of polymers, which are used by the plastic products manufacturing units.

The official said the Paradip plant would be a flexible one and would have the capacity to manufacture both light and heavy crudes.