RIL taps Fluor for petcoke, petrochem work

Reliance Industries Ltd., Mumbai, has let a contract to Fluor Corp. covering project management services for a new petcoke gasification plant and expansion of petrochemical facilities at its complex at Jamnagar, Gujarat, India, where it has 1.24 million b/d of refining capacity.

The company said the petcoke gasification facility would be “among the largest such projects ever built” but did not specify capacity. It recently reported cost of the project as $4 billion.

The unit, for which Fluor also will provide engineering and procurement services, will supply synthesis gas for use as a plant fuel and source of hydrogen.

Fluor’s contract also covers expansion of the refinery’s off-gas cracker and downstream petrochemical plants, a captive power plant, and related facilities.

In a recent financial presentation, RIL reported that the refinery off-gas cracker expansion would increase capacities as follows: ethylene to 3.248 million tonnes/year (tpy) from 1.883 million tpy; propylene to 913,000 tpy from 759,000 tpy; monoethylene glycol to 1.466 million tpy from 733,000 tpy; low-density polyethylene to 590,000 tpy from 190,000 tpy; high-density and linear low-density polyethylene to 1.478 million tpy from 928,000 tpy; and paraxylene to 3.656 million tpy from 1.856 million tpy.