IOC advances projects at Paradip refinery

Indian Oil Corp. Ltd. (IOC) has granted preliminary approval for construction of a grassroots needle coker unit at its 15-million tonnes/year Paradip refinery in Odisha, on India’s northeastern coast.

The company’s board of directors has cleared stage-1 approval for installation of the proposed unit that—to be equipped with IOC research and development group’s in-house technology—will have a calcined needle coke (CNC) production capacity of 56,000 tpy, IOC said.

At an estimated cost of 12.680 billion rupees, the planned project will be IOC’s first foray into the niche CNC product segment to help India meet its 80,000-100,000-tpy demand, which is currently met via CNC imports, according to the operator.

Preliminary approval of the CNC project follows a final greenlight from the company’s board in late July for IOC to proceed with its proposed 138.050-billion rupee investment for implementation of an integrated paraxylene-purified terephthalic acid (PX-PTA) complex at the Paradip refinery (OGJ Online, Apr. 23, 2020).

To be completed by early 2024, the PX-PTA complex will have a PX production capacity of 800,000 tpy, which would be the feedstock for production of 1.2 million tpy of PTA, IOC said in a July 31 release.

IOC also confirmed a 56.54-billion rupee ethylene glycol project, also at the Paradip refinery, that involves the addition of a new 357,000-tpy monoethylene glycol (MEG) plant as well as a 180,000-tpy ethylene recovery unit (ERU) at the manufacturing site, also currently is under implementation, with the MEG plant due for startup by yearend 2021 (OGJ Online, Jan. 31, 2019).

IOC’s petrochemical-related projects at Paradip come as part of the government of Odisha’s plan to establish the Paradip Petroleum, Chemicals, & Petrochemical Investment Region (PCPIR) (OGJ Online, July 10, 2020).