ONGC to issue Dahej downstream tenders in July

22 June 2007 13:38  [Source: ICIS news]

MUMBAI (ICIS news)--Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) is likely to release the tenders for downstream facilities at its Dahej plant in Gujarat in July, a company source said on Friday.

"The downstream facilities would be built by the engineering and construction (E&C) method. The licences for those are being finalised now," the source told ICIS news.

The downstream product slate will be: 140,000 tonnes/year of styrene butadiene rubber (SBR); 300,000 tonnes/year of high density polyethylene (HDPE); 720,000 tonnes/year of HDPE/linear low density PE (LLDPE), comprising two swing units; and 340,000 tonnes/year of polypropylene (PP).

The Dahej cracker and the downstream facilities would be built at an estimated cost of Indian rupees (Rs) 126bn ($3.1bn), he said.

ONGC had postponed the pre-bid conference for its Dahej cracker to 26 June.

Seven companies have already bid for the cracker, which would be built using the lumpsum turnkey (LSTK) method.

"The LSTK method will turn out to be cheaper as it would save us time. If the project is completed on or before schedule, it would keep the costs under control," the source said.

The deadline for submission of bids, which was set for 24 August, is likely to be met, he added.

"The contract for the cracker is likely to be awarded in early to mid-December," he said.

The cracker will have the capacity to produce 1.1m tonnes/year of ethylene; 340,000 tonnes/year of propylene; 225,000 tonnes/year of butadiene; 135,000 tonnes/year of benzene; 35,000 tonnes/year of butene-1; 75,000 tonnes/year of carbon black feedstock; 19,000 tonnes/year of C6 raffinate; and 135,000 tonnes/year of pyrolysis gasoline.

ONGC had earlier also planned 160,000 tonnes/year of styrene and an intermediate capacity of 129,000 tonnes/year of C4 raffinate, the source said.

The project will be implemented by an ONGC joint venture ONGC Petro-additions Ltd (OPaL) with Gujarat State Petroleum Corp (GSPC).

($1 = Rs40.54)

By: Divya Chowdhury
+65 6780 4359

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