Bathinda refinery’s Rs 24,000-cr petrochemical plant on track

Perneet Singh

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, December 2

Coming up at an investment of Rs 24,000 crore, the work on the petrochemical project of the HMEL’s Guru Gobind Singh Refinery is well on track and is set to meet its April 2021 deadline. The project will present Punjab an opportunity to emerge as the second biggest petrochemical hub in the country.

Talking to mediapersons at the refinery today, MB Gohil, VP-Petrochemicals, said the HPCL-Mittal Energy Limited (HMEL), is setting up an integrated world-class petrochemical complex at the refinery to meet the growing demand of petrochemicals in the country.

Being set up with an investment of $3 billion, the petrochemical complex would have a capacity of 1.2 million metric tonne (MMT) per annum, which is expandable to 1.5 MMT. The complex will have world-class technologies, which will make HMEL an integrated player in the petrochemical industry.

Besides 1.2 MMT capacity for polyethylene, it will also have a capacity of half a million metric tonne per annum for polypropylene. It will be in addition to the already existing half a million metric tonne capacity for polypropylene. The project will have the country’s biggest dual feed cracker unit.

Gohil said almost 80 per cent project was complete. Once completed, the project will provide 800 direct employment opportunities, apart from generating thousands of indirect jobs. The project was approved in April 2017 with a target of 48 months for its completion.

He said Punjab with its progressive government policies and growing demand for plastic presents a very compelling opportunity, which had encouraged them to set up this petrochemical plant that would make Punjab a major hub for supply of this raw material to the plastic industry.

Meanwhile, Ramesh Chugh, VP-Technical, HMEL, shared that the refinery was geared up to produce Euro-VI compliant fuels in line with the target date of April 2020 by the Union government. He said they were already producing Euro-VI compliant fuel and had been supplying the same to the NCR since January 2018.

Krishan Tuteja, VP-Operations, HMEL, said the refinery had also been producing bitumen since April 2018. He said they had a 5-lakh tonne plant and they were producing three grades of bitumen.