THE INDIAN Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL), the country’s state-owned oil and gas company, has launched India’s first e-SBR (styrene butadiene rubber) facility, sited at Panipat, near the naphtha cracker plant of the IOCL refinery .
M Veerappa Moily, the union minister for petroleum and natural gas, also announced that the capacity of the Panipat refinery will be increased to 21 million tonnes per year.
The Rs 958 crore-worth Indian Synthetic Rubber Lt (ISRL) project is a joint venture of the IOCL, Taiwan’s TSRC Corporation, Taiwan, and Japan’s Marubeni Corporation.
IOCL reportedly said that the The debt-funded project is expected to bolster the domestic rubber industry, especially the automotive sector, which normally imports SBR.
The capacity of the plant is planned to be escalated to 220 Kilo Tonnes in the next two years.