Investment in power
plant and caustic soda plant upgrade
Chemplast Sanmar Ltd. will
invest Rs. 300-crore to set up a power generation plant and to convert its mercury-based
caustic soda manufacturing process at Mettur. The
investment will be split with Rs. 220-crore for setting up the coal-based power generation
plant and Rs. 80-crore for converting the mercury-based caustic soda manufacturing process
to a membrane-based process.
Refinery commissioned
in 2009
Bharat Petroleum Corporation
Ltd. (BCPL) is hoping to commission its 6 million ton/year Bina refinery by the end of
2009. The refinery involves an investment of
Rs. 10,300-crore.
Raised refinery
capacities
Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd.
(HCPL) will raise the capacity of its Mumbai and Visakhapatnam refineries during the next
fiscal year. The Mubai capacity will be raised to 7.9 million tons/year from 5.5
million tons/year and the Visakhapatnam capacity will be raised to 8.4 million tons/year
from 7.5 million tons/year. The expansions are part of a program to produce cleaner
fuels and should have been implemented this past fiscal year, but have now been pushed to
2006-2007.
Retail expansion
Hindustan Petroleum Corporation
Ltd. (HCPL) is looking to finalize an agreement with British Petroleum on equity
participation on its Rs. 12,000-crore Bhatinda refinery project this Spring. HCPL would invest Rs. 1,200-crore in 2006-2007 to
expand the retail network and pipeline projects. The
company currently has 7,000 retail outlets and intends to add 850 more.
Bio-diesel unit starts
operations
Isonox Bio-Energy has started
operations at the Ambad area of MIDC. The
unit will manufacture bio-diesel from Jatropha curcas seeds. The company plans to increase the production
capacity from the current 2,000 liters/day to 10,000 liters/day in October of 2006. In 2007, capacity will be increased to 1 lakh
liter/day.
India’s biggest bio-fuels project
The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and British Petroleum will undertake a
$9.4 million project in Andhra Pradesh to demonstrate the feasibility of producing
bio-diesel from Jatropha Curcas. The 10-year
project will cultivate around 8,000 hectares of land currently designated as wasteland
with Jatropha and install all the equipment necessary – seed crushing, oil extraction
and processing – to product 9 million liters of bio-diesel/year. TERI will be responsible for the day-to-day
management and execution of the project, including establishing and implementing contracts
with local farmers or agricultural cooperatives. They
will also own and manage the processing facility.
CTL expansions planned
Sasol Managers will visit India this
month as part of the company’s plan to develop its coal-to-liquids (CTL) synfuel
operations overseas. Sasol is eyeing India and the U.S. as the next potential
markets for its CTL technology, which converts coal into liquid fuels and chemical
feedstocks.
Bayer to hold off on India, despite growth
It will
be at least five years before there is heavy investment in India by Bayer. The
business grew dramatically in 2005 – sales growth of 35% to $336 million in
2005. In addition, the Indian government has stated its commitment to attracting
foreign investment to seven major petrochemical sites. Bayer is considering
relatively small capital investments such as expanding its network of formulators and
polyurethane systems houses. Bayer has operations in its cropScience, health and
materials systems businesses in India. The company says India needs to significantly
improve its infrastructure before it would be prepared to make the same sorts of major
investments that are planned in China. 
