HPCL, GAIL eye petrochemical plant in Andhra Pradesh.

State-owned refiner Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd. (HPCL) and gas utility GAIL India Ltd. are looking at jointly setting up a multi-billion dollar petrochemical plant in Andhra Pradesh.

They are exploring the possibility of a petrochem project after their plans to team up with France's Total, Lakshmi N Mittal Group and Oil India Ltd. (OIL) for a 15 million tons a year refinery-cum-petrochemical plant at Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh fell through.

'That project fell as partners pulled out one after the other due to weak global demand,' a top official said. 'Now, HPCL and GAIL are looking at setting up a petrochemical plant at the Petroleum, Chemical and Petrochemicals Investment Region (PCPIR) sites identified by the state government.'

GAIL, the official said, is taking a lead in doing the feasibility studies as well as site selections.

Cost, capacity and equity structure of the project will be decided after the studies are completed.

GAIL is taking a lead in the project as it has expertise in building and operating a gas-based petrochemical plant, the official said.

HPCL owns a 6.5 million tonne refinery at Mumbai and a 8.3 million tonne unit at Vizag. While the Vizag plant is being expanded to 15 million tonnes, HPCL is also setting up a 9 million tonnes refinery at Barmer in Rajasthan at the cost of Rs. 37,320 crore.

The official said HPCL has got land for expanding the Vizag refinery to 15 million tonne and the project will be completed by 2017.


ET