Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and GAIL (India) are keen to pick up a stake in the Rs.5,000-crore Kochi petrochemical project being executed by Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) in joint venture with LG Chemicals of South Korea. Currently, LG will hold 51% stake and BPCL the remaining 49%.
The project will be built along with the Rs.14,500 crore expansion of the Kochi refinery from 9.5 mln tons to 15.5 mln tons by 2015-16. As part of this project, it would be establishing a petrochemical fluid catalytic cracker to generate 500 tmtpa of propylene. This would offer BPCL a launch pad for diversification into petrochemicals. Completion of the project would be dovetailed into the refinery expansion project. The project is expected to be completed by December 2015, and commissioned by March 16. Kochi refinery’s new units would include a 10.5 million-tonne crude distillation unit, a 2.2 mln ton fluid catalytic cracker (FCC) unit, a 4.3 mln ton diesel hydrotreater, a 3 mln ton vacuum gasoil hydrotreater and a 3.84 mln ton delayed coker. The FCC will produce about 2.15 mln tons of propylene annually.