MOSCOW (MRC) -- India's ONGC Petro additions Limited aims to start up its 340,000 mt/year polypropylene (PP) plant in Dahej Special Economic Zone, Gujarat, by end-May and is currently procuring feedstock propylene from the spot market, reported Apic-online with reference to a company source.
As reported earlier, the company was trying to start up the PP plant in mid-April.
"We will definitely start pre-marketing material but commercial on spec material may take a month to produce from the plant start up," the source said.
The plant's start-up had been delayed earlier due to high project costs.
It was heard that the company was looking for new shareholders but this could not be confirmed with the source.
OPaL is initially starting the PP plant in isolation, and then hopes to bring on stream its new steam cracker and new polyethylene (PE) units by mid-July, according to the source.
The company is building two 360,000 mt/year high density polyethylene/linear low density polyethylene (HDPE/LLDPE) swing units and a 340,000 mt/year standalone HDPE unit. Commercial production is expected to start two or three months from the start up, given that it is a new plant and needs time for production to stabilize, the source added.
The dual-feed cracker has the capacity to produce 1.1 million mt/year of ethylene and 400,000 mt/year of propylene. Associated units include a 150,000 mt/year benzene extraction unit and a 115,000 mt/year butadiene unit.
The new units will produce the following HDPE grades - injection, pipe, blow moulding, film and raffia/mono filament; and LLDPE grades - film, roto moulding, lamination and injection moulding.
As MRC wrote previously, in November 2015, Kuwait's Petrochemical Industries Company (PIC) said it was close to signing a deal to acquire 45% of the OpaL chemical factory in India.Tthe company's chief executive Asaad Al-Saad attributed delays in the completion of the deal to tough Indian laws, but said he was optimistic due to the support of India's government and the strength of its economy.
OPaL is a joint venture of Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC - 26%), Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL - 17%) and Gujarat State Petroleum Corp. (GSPC - 5%), with the balance held by other investors and public shares.
MRC