RIL plans Rs 40,000 crores in petrochemical investment

Reliance Industries plans to invest Rs 40,000 crores in petrochemicals by 2014 to expand the world's biggest refining complex at Jamnagar, Gujarat. Rs. 16,000 crore has been earmarked to set up a cracker unit as part of a proposed petrochemicals project in Jamnagar.

The cracker will produce ethylene, propylene, low-density polyethylene and monoethylene glycol. Rs. 15,000 crore will be invested in a coke gasification plant that will fuel power plants in the complex. It plans to spend Rs. 6,850 crore on a plant to produce paraxylene, used in the production of fibre and film, and a unit to manufacture butyl rubber that has applications in industries, including adhesives, agricultural chemicals and personal care products.Various supporting and ancillary projects would cost Rs. 4,000 crore. They include a fifth crude distillation unit (CDU) that would utilize crude from Cairn India Ltd's Mangala oil field in Rajasthan. A CDU is a front-end process in the refinery to separate crude oil into products such as naphtha, kerosene and light gas oil, among others.

Thid is the first time that RIL executives have specified the investment on the petrochemical projects in Jamnagar as part of an expansion drive called J3, which denotes the third phase of expansion of the complex. RIL is also exploring the option of constructing a 5 mln tpa floating re-gasification terminal for liquefied natural gas- not a part of J3.

RIL is likely to generate US$18 bln in cash between 2011 and 2014, according to a Goldman Sachs estimate. In the proposed cracker project, the residual gases generated as by-products from the two existing RIL refineries in Jamnagar can be used as feedstock to produce petrochemical products. The gas is currently being utilized to fire captive power units in the Jamnagar complex. The off-gas cracker with over 1.5 mtpa of olefins capacity with matching downstream capacities will be one of the largest facilities in the world.