Country's leading PSU refinery firm Indian Oil (IOC) is expecting that it could also become a licensor for its IndMax technology besides being an OMC.
"IOC has developed the IndMax technology by its own R&D team seven or eight years ago. The technology aims at maximising LPG production and is being used at the Paradip refinery", IOC Director (refineries) Sanjiv Singh told visiting reporters here.
He said that IOC had tied up with Lummus of the US as a technical collarator, adding that many companies in India and Asian countries were showing interest is using the technology.
"If that be the case, then IOC will be a licensor for providing the technology " he said.
Singh said that LPG, which would be produced at the Paradip plant would be targeted to increase penetration in the eastern part of the country.
He said LPG was in short supply in the eastern region.
IOC had also drawn up plans for a PCPIR in the coastal refinery where the refinery would be the anchor tenant.
Singh said IOC would set up an ethylene glycol (MEG) plant and a polypropylene unit at a cost of Rs 3,150 crore. The latter would be ready by 2017 end.
Dhamra will be the sixth LNG project announced on the
east coast. While GAIL has dropped plans of a 4-mt project at Paradip, Petronet LNG, a firm in which GAIL and IOC are promoters, has shelved plans to set up a 5-mt a year LNG import facility at Gangavaram in Andhra Pradesh.
GAIL, along with GdF and Shell, has proposed a 3.5-mt floating LNG terminal at Kakinada while IOC is building a 5-mt facility at Ennore in Tamil Nadu.
Real estate player Hiranandani Group is looking to set up a Rs 2,400-crore, 4-mt floating LNG import terminal off Haldia in West Bengal.
With GAIL, which owns and operates bulk of the nation's cross-country pipelines, and IOC, whose refineries are a big user of gas, joining Dhamra, the fate of LNG terminals in Andhra Pradesh is uncertain. Dhamra can meet all of the demand in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh.
Dhamra port in Bhadrak district of Odisha is an all- weather deep water port, sources said.
GAIL in October 2013 had signed an MoU with the Paradip Port Trust for setting up of the LNG import terminal. While the port was to invest Rs 650 crore in breakwater and dredging, GAIL was to invest Rs 2,458 crore for the 4-mt terminal which can be expanded to 10 mt. The plan was, however, dropped in March last year.
