Nayara Energy reports significant progress on its entry into petrochemicals

Nayara Energy Ltd, India's second-largest private oil refiner, on Wednesday said it is on track for entry into the petrochemicals sector with the majority of work being completed on a propylene recovery unit.

Nayara, which operates a 20 million tonne-a-year oil refinery at Vadinar in Gujarat, has adopted a phase-wise asset development strategy to enter into the petrochemicals sector.

"Under Phase-1 of the project, Nayara is setting up a 450-kilo tonne per annum polypropylene plant at its Vadinar refinery in Gujarat - a propylene recovery unit along with upgrades to the existing FCC Unit (Fluidized Catalytic Cracking Unit) and a polypropylene unit (PPU)," the firm said in a statement.

Stating that it is on track with the projects, the firm said it is well positioned to make a strong energy into this high growth segment given that it is located in the largest petrochemical consumption region of the country and its proximity to a jetty.

"Phase-1 project development has achieved over 85 per cent progress and expects production of its first petrochemical product i.e. polypropylene by Q4 of 2023," the statement said.

During the recently scheduled refinery shutdown, the company executed regular maintenance, inspection and upgrade for its units as well as all required tie-ins for Phase-1.

"The revamped FCC Unit was commissioned safely on December 20, 2022, and 100 per cent unit throughput was achieved on December 23, 2022," it said.

Commenting on the project's progress, Alois Virag, CEO of Nayara Energy Ltd, said, "With the completion of the FCC revamp, we have made significant progress on our Petrochemical entry. The planned phase-wise execution of the project is a testimony of Nayara's capabilities to successfully deliver on mega projects. This capability will serve us well for our larger phase II project, which will be an integrated Petrochemical complex".

With the majority of work completed on its propylene recovery unit, the company expects to commence its pre-commissioning activities in February 2023.

Additionally, for its polypropylene unit, the majority of long lead items i.e. extruder, reactor, product purge bin column, compressors, etc. have been erected at the site and the focus is now on the completion of piping and building works, the statement added.

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