The year 2004-05 marked IndianOil’s big-ticket entry into petrochemicals with the commissioning of the country’s largest Linear Alkyl Benzene (LAB) plant at Gujarat Refinery in August 2004. It is also the largest grassroots single train Kerosene-to-LAB unit in the world, with an installed capacity of 1,20,000 metric tonnes per annum (MTPA). Currently, two grades of LAB – high molecular weight and low molecular weight – are being produced. The quality of the LAB produced here has found wide acceptance in the domestic and overseas markets.

Built at a cost of Rs. 1,248 crore and commissioned in a record 24 months’ time, the plant produces superior quality LAB for manufacturing environment-friendly biodegradable detergents. The key raw materials for the plant, catering to domestic as well as export market requirements meeting the latest and most stringent quality standards, are Kerosene and Benzene produced at Koyali Refinery. The LAB unit at Gujarat Refinery achieved 102.8% capacity utilization during the year 2009-2010.

During the year 2009-10, LAB sales touched 126 TMT including export of 19 TMT to 19 countries.

The PX/PTA project marks IndianOil’s major step towards forward integration in the hydrocarbon value chain by manufacturing Paraxylene (PX) from Naphtha and thereafter, converting it into Purified Terephthalic Acid (PTA). The integrated Paraxylene/Purified Terephthallic Acid (PX/PTA) complex was built at a cost of Rs. 5,104 crore within the Panipat Refinery in Haryana.

The PTA Plant is the single largest unit in India with a world-scale capacity of 5,53,000 MTPA, achieving economy of scale. The process package for the PTA plant was prepared by erstwhile M/s Dupont, UK (now M/s. Invista) and that of the Paraxylene Unit was prepared by M/s UOP, USA. M/s EIL and M/s Toyo Engineering were the Project Management Consultants (PMC) for executing the PTA and PX respectively.

The Paraxylene plant is designed to process 5,00,000 MTPA of heart-cut Naphtha to produce about 3,60,000 MTPA of PX. Naphtha is sourced from IndianOil’s Panipat and Mathura refineries, for which Naphtha splitter units are set up at the respective refineries. The PTA unit produces 5,53,000 MTPA of Purified Terephthalic Acid from Paraxylene. Technologically, the plant is one of the most advanced in the country.

The world-class Naphtha Cracker at Panipat, built at a cost of Rs 14,400 crore, is the largest operating cracker capacity in India.

The feed for the unit is sourced internally from IndianOil's Koyali, Panipat and Mathura refineries. The Naphtha Cracker comprises of the following downstream units - Polypropylene (capacity: 600,000 tonnes), High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) (dedicated capacity: 300,000 tonnes) and Linear Low Density Poly Ethylene (LLDPE) (350,000 tonnes Swing unit with HDPE), Mono Ethylene Glycol(MEG) plant (capacity: 325,000 tonnes).

The cracker will produce over 800,000 tonnes per annum of ethylene, 600,000 tonnes per annum of Propylene, 125,000 tonnes per annum of Benzene, and other products viz., LPG, Pyrolysis Fuel Oil, components of Gasoline and Diesel. The Poly Propylene (PP) unit is designed to produce high quality and high value niche grades including high speed Bi-axially Oriented Polypropylene (BOPP) and super impact co-polymer grades.

The Poly Propylene (PP) unit is designed to produce high quality and high value niche grades including high speed Bi-axially Oriented Polypropylene (BOPP) (used for food packaging and laminations), high clarity random co-polymers (used for food containers and thin walled products) and super impact co-polymer grades (used for batteries, automobile parts, luggage and heavy duty transport containers). Polyethylene is used for making injection moulded caps, heavy duty crates, containers, bins, textile bobbins, luggage ware, thermoware, storage bins, pressure pipes (for gas and water), small blow-moulded bottles, jerry cans, etc.

Mr. Avinash Verma
Dy. General Manager
(Petrochemicals - Marketing)
Indian Oil Corporation Ltd.
8th Floor, IndianOil Bhavan
1, SriAurobindo Marg
Yusuf Sarai,
New Delhi 110016
Tele: 011-26859070
Fax: 011-26859271
Email: vermaavinash@iocl.co.in