IOCL to setup petrochemical complex at Paradip

India’s leading oil company Indian Oil Corporation Limited or IOCL will invest Rs. 61,077 crore in building a petrochemical plant in Odisha. The PSU’s chairman says the complex will transformative in its impact, significantly advancing the Aatmanirbhar Bharat initiative.  

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New Delhi, March 23: Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL), leader of the Indian downstream oil & gas industry, has announced a mega investment project in Paradip, Odisha. The company says its board of directors have approved setting up a petrochemical complex at the location at an estimate cost of Rs. 61,077 crores.

The project will be the oil marketing company’s (OMC) largest ever investment at a single location. IOCL announced the project will improve the Petrochemical Intensity Index of the company and de-risk its fossil fuel business. Petrochemical intensity refers to the percentage of crude oil that is converted directly into chemicals which are then used to make plastics and other materials.

In its regulatory filing, the state run oil company said that the Paradip project shall also help to reduce the import dependency and contribute to vision of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’.  The said petrochemical complex will include a world-scaler cracker unit along with downstream process units for several petrochemical products including polypropylene (PP), high density polyethylene (HDPE), linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) and so on.

The complex will also facilitate production of niche chemicals and petrochemicals like phenol and iso propyl alcohol. IOCL chairman Shrikant Madhav Vaidya has said the firm’s newer refineries at Panipat in Haryana and Paradip in Odisha have the petrochemical intensity of 15-20% which would be raised to 25%.