Indian Oil Takes Another Big Leap, Announces New PX and PTA Plant Capacities to Strengthen its Textile Raw Materials Sector

On Sunday, India’s petrochemical giant, Indian Oil Corp. (IOCL) gave a nod for an investment of INR 13,805 crore towards setting up a plant in Odisha's seaport city of Paradip, solely dedicated towards manufacturing raw materials for the textile sector. The construction of this Paraxylene (PX) and Purified Terephthalic Acid (PTA) plant is slated to complete by 2024. As stated by a company official, the upcoming plant would be integrated with the Indian Oil's refinery located in the port town of Jagatsinghpur district. The petrochemicals complex will have PX production capacity of 800 KTPA which would serve as the feedstock for manufacturing purified terephthalic acid which is a key raw material for the production of polyester yarns. The PTA plant capacity would stand nearly at 1200,000 tpy post the commissioning. In addition to bringing its petrochemicals product portfolio closer to India’s textile-yarn manufacturing units, the project assures to generate about five million man-days of employment over the next three-years of the plant’s construction. IOCL’s Chairman SM Vaidya also stated in one of the recent interviews that this plant backed by IOCL’s upcoming MEG facility in Paradip would serve as a source of feedstock for the company’s upcoming 300,000 tonnes per annum textile yarn manufacturing project located in the city of Bhadrak in Odisha. The 357 KTPA MEG facility is already under implementation and is expected to turn operational by the end of FY21.