Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) and gas utility GAIL (India) Limited have expressed interest in acquiring stakes in the `5,000-crore petrochemical project at Kochi that Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) is setting up through a joint venture LG Chemicals, BPCL Chairman and Managing Director R.K. Singh said .
“We have got proposals from several companies to join the project. ONGC and GAIL have shown interest in taking equity stake,” Singh said on the sidelines of the Petrotech 2012 conference here.
While the final equity structure of the joint venture has not been finalised yet, BPCL is likely to hold 49 per cent stake with the balance 51 per cent with LG Chemicals. Singh said BPCL hasn’t decided yet on taking on more partners for the project.
“The equity structure of the petrochemical joint venture has not yet been finalised. But it has been more or less agreed that LG will be the lead partner,” he added. The petrochemical project will be build along with the expansion of the Kochi refinery that entails a total investment of `14,500 crore. The refinery’s capacity is being expanded to 15.5 million tonnes by 2015-16 from the current 9.5 million tonnes.
Singh said the petrochemical project will be completed by December 2015 and commissioned by March 16, 2016. It will produce high-value products like Acrylic Acid, which is currently not produced in India and super absorbent polymers that are used in manufacture of diapers.
Kochi refinery’s new units would include a 10.5 million tonne crude distillation unit, a 2.2 million tonne fluid catalytic cracker unit, a 4.3 million tonne diesel hydrotreater etc.