MOSCOW (MRC) -- Oil major Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) is in the process of exploring a 50:50 polyurethane (PU) joint venture in Kochi with city-based Manali Petrochemicals Ltd., at an outlay of around Rs.2,500 crore, said Plastemart.
"We are in the process of exploring a joint venture with Manali Petrochemicals to set up a polyurethane project in Kochi. A joint study is being made, as per an undisclosed BPCL official to IANS. BPCL is expanding its refinery capacity at Kochi to around 15.5 mln mtpa from the current 9.5 mln mtpa. Once the expansion goes on stream, the company will have propylene capacity of 500,000 tpa - a quantum jump from its existing 50,000 tpa. This propylene could serve as feedstaock for the proposed PU plant. "The plant capacity will be dependent on the availability of propylene. A 300,000 tpa plant will be ideal," officials said.
As MRC wrote before, the proposed project envisages increasing the capacity of Kochi refinery from the present 9.5 mln mtpa to 15.5 mln mtpa, modernisation of the refinery to produce auto-fuels complying with Euro-IV/Euro-V specifications, upgradation of low value refinery residue stream to value-added products and production of propylene, which is a major petrochemical feedstock.
The state government has agreed to extend incentives like deferment of various taxes to BPCL for its expansion program. BPCL has already signed an MoU with petrochemical major LG Chem, South Korea in this regard.
Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) is an Indian state-controlled oil and gas company headquartered in Mumbai, India. Bharat Petroleum owns refineries at Mumbai, Maharashtra and Kochi, Kerala (Kochi Refineries) with a capacity of 12 and 9.5 million metric tonnes per year.
MRC