India’s BPCL to build ethylene cracker project
Indian state-controlled refiner BPCL will build an ethylene cracker project at its 156,000 b/d Bina refinery, including downstream petrochemical plants, according to an exchange filing on 16 May.
The cost of the project, including the expansion of the Bina refinery, is estimated to be 490bn rupees ($5.95bn). Production of petrochemical and oil products — including ethylene, propylene, polyethylene, polypropylene and benzene — from the refinery is set to begin from fiscal year April 2027-March 2028, a government release shows.
BPCL has been planning to expand capacity at the Bina refinery in Madhya Pradesh state over the next three years.
"We have plans to go from 7.8mn t/yr to something in the range of 11mn-11.5mn t/yr, subject to final details," BPCL's director of refineries Sanjay Khanna told Argus during the India Energy Week earlier this year.
BPCL has a petrochemical unit at the 310,000 b/d Kochi refinery in Kerala that produces 500,000t of propylene, part of which goes into downstream production.
The firm also plans to set up a greenfield petrochemicals plant at Maharashtra state's Rasayani town, 60km from its 240,000 b/d Mumbai refinery which includes an ethylene cracker. The firm has initial plans to build a 450,000 t/yr propylene unit and a 1.5mn t/yr polyethylene facility.
It also has a 600 acre complex in Mumbai, which will have a 400,000 t/yr capacity propylene plant and a 1.2mn t/yr cracker that will convert feedstock from the company's 240,000 b/d Mumbai refinery to ethylene. BPCL has been seeking foreign partners for the project to invest $3bn for the project.
BPCL has been expanding into petrochemicals because of doubts over India's long-term fuel demand after Delhi announced plans to gradually electrify its transport network.
BPCL is also separately looking at setting up two 50MW wind power plants for captive consumption, one at Madhya Pradesh for the Bina refinery and another at Maharashtra for the Mumbai refinery, at the cost of Rs9.78bn or Rs4.89bn for each project.
It will also spend Rs27.53bn to build petroleum oil lubricant and lube oil base stock facilities with receiving pipelines at Rasayani.
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