InterviewGAIL-RIL plan foreign mega projects

04 March 2008 19:33  [Source: ICIS news]

By Divya Chowdhury

MUMBAI (ICIS news)--GAIL (India) Limited and Reliance Industries Limited’s (RIL) joint working group will submit a report identifying three countries for setting up joint mega-petrochemical projects in April, a top GAIL official said on Tuesday.

“The report will be submitted to the joint board, which will then identify areas to build one or two mega-petrochemical projects,” Gail chairman and managing director UD Choubey told ICIS news from the sidelines of the International Petrochem Conference.

Gail had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with RIL for joint co-operation in petrochemicals in the domestic market as well as to set up complexes outside India in feedstock rich countries in December last year.

“An ethane-rich location will be chose, and in all likelihood the first project will be set up at Azerbaijan,” a source close to developments said.

Meanwhile, Choubey also expressed interest in partnering Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) in its cracker and derivatives complex at Dahej in Gujarat state.

“Details are being worked out,” Choubey said, without disclosing any other details.

ONGC was looking for a strategic investor for the project, S Ramachandran, group general manager-BD&JV, ONGC, had told ICIS news earlier.

ONGC’s dual-feed cracker was slated for fast track implementation and commissioning by December 2011.

The cracker will have the capacity to produce 1.1m tonnes/year of ethylene, 340,000 tonnes/year of propylene, 95,000 tonnes/year of butadiene, 135,000 tonnes/year of benzene, 35,000 tonnes/year of butene-1, 30,000 tonnes/year of styrene, 75,000 tonnes/year of carbon black feedstock, and 135,000 tonnes/year of pyrolysis gasoline.

The ethylene and propylene would be used as feedstock to downstream units.

“There is every likelihood that C2 production will go up. However, ONGC is not very interested in selling ethylene directly. Instead, we would be interested in partnering for ethylene-based downstream units,” Ramachandran had said.

ONGC’s 26% joint venture ONGC Petro-additions Limited (OPaL) is executing the project. Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC) holds 5% in the venture, and the balance 69% will be offered to strategic investors and financial institutions during the course of project execution.

Meanwhile, Gail along with Oil India Limited and France’s Total are also partnering HPCL in its $6bn integrated 15m tonne/year refinery and 1m tonne/year olefins and aromatics project at Vizag in Andhra Pradesh state.

“A technical group will be submitting its study on the Vizag PCPIR [petroleum, chemicals and petrochemical investment region] in two weeks,” Choubey said.

This will then go to the standing committee, which will study the report and take the project forward, he added, without disclosing further details.

The two-day conference, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), will conclude on 5 March.

For more on ethylene, propylene and aromatics visit ICIS chemical intelligence

For more on GAIL's facilities visit ICIS plants and projects

 

By: Divya Chowdhury
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