IndianOil to kickstart PTA project April-end

IndianOil Corporation will start its PTA (Purified Terephthalic Acid) plant located at Panipat refinery in the last week of April.

IOCL will import 10,000 mt of paraxylene for the PTA production as commissioning of its paraxylene plant at Panipat has been delayed for some technical reasons.

When contacted by Business Standard, IOCL spokesperson confirmed that the order has been placed for the first consignment of 10,000 mt of paraxylene and is expected to arrive at Mundra port by the end of March.

According to IOCL sources, the paraxylene consignment will reach Panipat in the first week of April and PTA production would commence from April last week.

"Once initial PTA production starts, we will wait for paraxylene plant to commence production. If paraxylene plant commissioning is delayed further and does not start in time, we have made arrangements to import more paraxylene for the PTA production," said IOCL official.

IOCL plans to start production of naphtha at Panipat complex. IOCL would manufacture paraxylene from naphtha and convert it into PTA. The company has invested over Rs 5,300 crore in PTA and paraxylene complex at Panipat.

Once commissioned, the PTA Plant will be the largest unit in India with a capacity of 5,53,000 MTPA. The aromatics production will also comprise 357,000tpa paraxylene (PX) and 21,000 tpa of benzene.

The feedstock naphtha will be sourced from IndianOil's Panipat and Mathura refineries. Toyo Engineering India Limited (TEIL) has been appointed as project management consultants for the paraxylene plant where technology is supplied by UOP.