Oil India Limited announced that the Board of Directors at its meeting held on March 16, 2022, has approved Rs 65.55 billion (USD861 million) investment by subsidiary company Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) for implementation of petrochemical project at Numaligarh, Assam, according to Kemicalinfo.
The board also approved the formation of a joint venture company between Assam Gas Company (AGCL) and Oil India (OIL) for the three geographical areas offered by Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB).
NRL is executing a major expansion project of capacity augmentation from present 3.0 MMTPA to 9.0 MMTPA by installing a 6 MMTPA capacity refinery and associated crude oil terminals & pipeline considering processing of Arab Light (AL) and Arab Heavy (AH) crude oil (AL:AH=30:70).
The required additional quantity of crude oil is planned to be imported through Paradip Port in Odisha. A cross country pipeline of around 1640 Km shall be laid from Paradip Port to Numaligarh for transporting 9 MMTPA of imported crude.
Part of the Government of India’s Hydrocarbon Vision 2030 initiative to help meet growing demand of petroleum products in northeastern India, NRL’s refinery expansion will increase overall crude oil processing capacity and it is scheduled to be completed by 2024. Environmental clearance was obtained for the project on 27th July 2020. Approved budget for the project is Rs 280.26 billion.
We remind, as MRC informed before, Indian Oil Corp, the country's top refiner, bought 3 mln bbl of Russian Urals from trader Vitol for May delivery, trade sources said, its first purchase of the grade since Russia invaded Ukraine.
Western sanctions against Russia have led many companies and countries to shun its oil, depressing Russian crude to record discount levels. IOC said in late February it would buy Russian oil on delivered basis to avoid any complication relating to fixing vessels and insurance.
Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.
According to MRC''s ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 2,487,450 tonnes in 2021, up by 13% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market totalled 1,494.280 tonnes, up by 21% year on year. Deliveries of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased, whreas.shipments of PP random copolymers decreased significantly.
MRC