On Friday, Indian Oil Corporation Limited or IOCL reported that the company has made a profit of INR 5,941.37 Crore (approx. USD 798 million) while filing its numbers to stock exchanges for the June Quarter. As per the company’s numbers, IOCL has reported a significant jump of more than 211 percent in comparison to the profits earned in the same quarter last year. This drastic reversal in numbers came on the back of healthy refinery margins and strong inventory gains.

The company gained a profit of USD 6.58 on turning every barrel of crude into fuel standing contrast to the previous year’s when IOCL earned a profit of USD 1.98 on every barrel as part of Gross Refining Margin (GRM).

Staggering import numbers in terms of crude and downstream petrochemical products availed sufficient opportunity to the Indian refiners to expand operations. And India’s largest refiner, IOCL, seems to seize that opportunity. Recently, the company announced that it will be expanding its Panipat refinery by 10 MMTPA to 25 MMTPA and a Polypropylene (PP) unit will also be part of that expansion which will be made at an investment of USD 4.46 billion. With the announcement of a new PP unit in Panipat, the total PP capacity which will be added in India in the next 3-4 years will be crossing 1 MMTPA.

IOCL also plans to expand its Vadodara refinery from its current capacity of 13.7 MMTPA to 18 MMTPA.

IOCL has been highly conscious of the current market dynamics in India which signifies the growing domestic demand for petrochemical products and a high export potential. In lieu of that, the company has taken a monumental step when the company board accorded the stage-1 approval to India’s first Styrene monomer plant in Panipat, Haryana.

Furthermore, as part of its expansion plan for this decade, where IOCL promises to increase its petrochemical capacity by 70 percent, IOCL has made some significant announcements where it plans to build an Ethylene glycol plant in Paradip, Odisha and an Acrylics/Oxo-Alcohols plant in Dumad, Gujarat.

Ethylene Glycol plant will be built at an investment of INR 5654 Crore (approx. USD 760 million), which will produce Monoethylene Glycol (MEG), Diethylene Glycol (DEG) and Triethylene Glycol. Whereas, Dumad site will have an Acrylic Acid unit, Butyl Acrylate unit, Normal Butyl Alcohol unit, Syn-gas and Hydrogen, Propylene Recovery Unit (PRU) and will cost INR 5251 Crore (approx. USD 706 million).

As per ChemAnalyst, “these refinery expansions and petrochemical plant constructions by IOCL will not only improve the country’s trade deficit numbers but also support the “Make in India” campaign. These actions shall also inspire other refiners to take a cue and build on Indian petrochemical demand growth and export potential.”