IOC Confirms Plans for India’s First Styrene Monomer Plant at Panipat Refinery

Aiming to harness India’s “Atmanirbhar Bharat” mission, and to make India more self-reliant in the chemical sector, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL) has announced an investment plan at its existing Panipat refinery in Haryana. This plan includes a total investment of around INR 450 billion, which will be utilised to establish a new Styrene Monomer plant.

The upcoming project aims to get feed from existing Panipat refinery, which also received an approval of expansion from 15 MMTPA to 25 MMTPA, worth INR 3300 billion in February 2021. The new Styrene Monomer plant will have the capacity of around 387,000 MTPA, where the overall requirement of Styrene Monomer in India is around 900,000 MTPA. This project is expected to be completed by 2026-27, till then India will have to completely rely on the imports of Styrene Monomer.

Styrene Monomer is a majorly imported commodity in India, and from the beginning of the Indian petrochemical industry, domestic downstream industries had to rely on the aid of imports from other Singapore, Middle East and other Southeast Asian countries to cater the domestic demand. According to ChemAnalyst database, prices of Styrene Monomer reached record high level i.e., close to INR 122.5/ per kg during March, majorly due to the external factors like fuming freight cost and unexpected shortage of shipping containers. Besides, factors like climate calamities and production activities in major Styrene producing countries, also influence the current market price of Styrene monomer in India, which is another major concern for domestic downstream producers.