Indian Oil Corp. Ltd. plans to construct a 235,000 metric ton per year base oil plant at its Gujarat, India, refinery as part of a petrochemical and lube integration project.
The Mumbai-based company announced in a Sept. 22 stock exchange filing that its board of directors approved the project at a Sept. 21 meeting. The filing didn’t disclose what type of API group of base oil would be produced or a projected completion date.
Indian Oil currently operates a base oil plant in Haldia, in the state of West Bengal, with capacity to make 130,000 t/y of Group I and 120,000 t/y of Group II oils.
Indian Oil estimated the Gujarat petrochemical and lube integration project’s cost at Rs 17,825 crore (178.3 billion Indian rupees or U.S $2.4 billion).
The company said the project will increase the crude oil refining capacity of the Gujurat Refinery from 13.7 million tons per year to 18 million t/y. It would also integrate to petrochemicals with production of 500,000 t/y.
“The project would be a building block for production of niche chemicals in the future, with a potential to increase petrochemical and speciality products integration index on incremental crude oil throughput, which would enhance the corporate margins of lndianOil,” the company stated in its filing.