Milestone of India - Milestone in PSU IOC's Petrochem Business.

NEW DELHI: Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) on Wednesday announced that its turnover from the petrochemical business was expected to more than double to Rs.15,000 crore next fiscal.

Addressing a press conference here to announce the launch of the ‘Propel'' brand of petrochemical products here, IOC Chairman B. M. Bansal said the company clocked a turnover of Rs.3,000 crore from the petrochemical business in 2009-10 and this year it was expected to rise to Rs.6,000 crore.

“Next fiscal, we hope to run our naphtha cracker plant at Panipat full stream that will see our turnover rising to Rs.15,000 crore,'' he remarked.

Mr. Bansal said IOC was hoping to capture 20 per cent market share of the petrochemical business in India from the current 5 per cent. “Every segment that we operate in, whether it is lubricants, automotive fuels, LPG or aviation we have established ourselves as leaders. ‘Propel' will be the latest in the bouquet of our brand offerings and is backed by the same intensity of passion that helped us capture the hearts and minds of our customers,'' he said.

Further, he said IOC had earmarked Rs.30,000-crore investments during 2007-12 for setting up world-class plants and nationwide marketing infrastructure.

“These plants have been designed to use product streams from IOC's own refineries, to produce a wide range of value-added petrochemical products and intermediates for segments as diverse as detergents, polyesters and polymers/plastic,'' he added.

He said IOC had also laid out a web-based marketing strategy, showcasing its capability to manufacture and market the full range of petrochemicals.

IOC is setting up a petrochemicals complex at its upcoming grassroots refinery at Paradip in Orissa.

To be commissioned by 2011-12, the 15-million tonnes per annum refinery will have facilities for production of front-end petrochemicals, including paraxylene, polypropylene and styrene.
A state-of-the-art 1.20 lakh tonnes per annum styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) unit, the first in India, is under way at Panipat as a joint venture with TSRC Corporation of Taiwan and Marubeni Corporation of Japan to further strengthen IOC's presence in specialty petrochemicals.