State-run Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited and NRI steel tycoon Lakshmi N Mittal's joint venture HPCL-Mittal Energy Ltd is all set to invest nearly $3 billion in setting up a petrochemicals complex at their Bhatinda refinery, Punjab. The company intends to set up a naphtha cracker with a capacity of up to 1.7 million tonnes for producing raw material for making plastics, HPCL chairman MK Surana said.
While setting up a petrochemicals plant will easily take up to four years, HMEL plans to fast-track the process to build it in lesser time. “We have land and other infrastructure at the Bhatinda refinery,” Surana said, adding that the project will be formally announced shortly after investment approvals. This will be HPCL's first petrochemicals plant in northern India. Surana said expansion of the refinery to 11.25 million tonnes per annum from existing 9 million tonnes will be completed next month at a cost of $350 million.
He added that it has taken its first 45-day maintenance shutdown to integrate new units and that additional volumes will cater to growth in demand in northern India.
