Government-owned Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) is aiming to have 15 per cent of its revenue from petrochemicals in the next three years.
This is part of a strategy to invest around Rs 60,000 crore in capacity-building in the next five years.
The company is in the process of building a Rs 14,000-crore facility at Panipat for naphtha crackers and propylene. It is to start operations by April 2010.
“Initially, the capacity utilisation will be 65 per cent and according to the demand for petrochemicals, the facility in Paradip will also be converted into a petrochemical complex. The plan is to make IOC an integrated petroleum company and, hence, we have consciously forayed into petrochemicals,” B M Bansal, director (planning and business development), said.
The company will come up with a brand to represent its petrochemicals business within two to three months, he added. The yearly demand for petrochemicals in India is five million tonnes.
On upstream polymer production, Bansal said the capacity will be expanded for this by 2014. The company is also eyeing acquisitions of oil producing assets in Africa and South East Asia.
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If a proper exploration block is identified, then the revenue from the petrochemicals business will jump from the first year, he said. The company is also on the lookout for a partner to set up a captive coal-based power plant for the Paradip project.
The joint venture with Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) to enter into nuclear power generation will strengthen the foothold of the company in the energy sector, though the dependence on energy generated out of petrol will get lessened.
On retail expansion, Bansal said the company will go slow and add around 200 retail outlets a year. But Kisan Seva Kendra, the rural outlets, will be strengthened faster by adding around 400 outlets a year.
Currently, there are 2,000 units of these and they contribute around 25-30 per cent of the retail business. The outlets sell, apart from petrol and diesel, agro products such as seeds and fertiliser.