On a roll

New Delhi, Jan. 2: The Centre’s Assam gas cracker project has been named Brahmaputra Cracker and Polymers and is being registered as a joint venture of GAIL, Numaligarh Refineries, Oil India Ltd and the Assam government.

Though the project, which has been in limbo for many years, is finally taking shape, there are still concerns about the feedstock for the cracker plant as the price for the gas to be supplied is yet to be fixed with the suppliers — GAIL and Oil India.

Officials said the petroleum ministry has already written to its chemicals and fertilisers counterpart for additional support to take care of an increase in feedstock price, operation costs and an increase in interest rate.

If this subsidy is not forthcoming, the higher prices being quoted by the suppliers could pose a problem for the nascent company. The central government has agreed to a long-term loan of Rs 327 crore for the company. Talks are also on with the Asian Development Bank for a term loan.

The integrated petrochemical complex will be implemented by the joint venture in which GAIL will have a 70 per cent equity participation. The remaining 30 per cent equity will be shared equally among Oil India, Numaligarh Refineries and the Assam government. The project, officials said, would be completed in 60 months from the date of financial closure. “We hope to achieve financial closure in this fiscal itself,” they said.

Officials said the project would come up on nearly 1,400 acres at Lepetkata in Dibrugarh district. The petrochemical complex will comprise a gas separation plant, cracker unit, downstream polymer and integrated off-site utilities. The complex has been configured with a capacity of 220,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) of ethylene and 60,000 tpa of propylene.

The downstream petrochemical unit will convert the ethylene and propylene into 220,000 tonnes per annum of HDPE/LLDPE, 60,000 tpa of polypropylene, 55,000 tpa of raw pyrolysis gasoline and 12,500 tpa of fuel oil.