RIL project seen bumping up petrochemicals core profit by $300 mn

This is the first time ethane is sourced from US to India; total investment to be recovered in 4 yrs

Reliance Industries Ltd's (RIL’s) first-of-its-kind ethane import project is expected to add $300 million to the operating profit of the petrochemicals business, Vipul Shah, chief operating officer of petrochemicals, told reporters in a media briefing on Wednesday.

To secure feedstock for its three cracker facilities at Dahej, Nagothane and Hazira, RIL invested about $1.6 billion to import ethane from the US to use as feedstock and produce ethylene at these facilities.

For the financial year 2016-2017, the company reported earnings before interest and tax (Ebit) of Rs 12,990 crore in the petrochemicals business.

"The total investment in this project will be recovered in