An anonymous source of ChemAnalyst revealed that the Acrylic Acid, Iso Butanol and Butyl Acrylate production plant by IOCL in Dumad, Gujarat, which was expected to be commissioned by November 2023 has been postponed till the mid of 2024. The reason behind this delay is still unclear but cited to the current status of the project.

As per the Annual Report of 2022-23, IOCL was expecting that the project would be fully commissioned by November 2023. However, in November itself, there are no signs of commissioning the project, and postponement seems inevitable due to some internal technical abnormalities, reveals a trusted source of ChemAnalyst. Furthermore, as per the latest estimations, the management expects that the plant will be commissioned by the mid of 2024.

The Acrylics/Oxo Alcohols project by IOCL was announced with a budget of approximately USD 656 million. This project includes the procurement of raw material propylene (121 KTPA capacity) from IOCL refinery Gujarat. This propylene will be used to produce intermediate chemicals Acrylic Acid (90 KTPA capacity) and n-Butanol (92 KTPA capacity). Further, these intermediates will entirely be used for captive consumption and the final products will be Butyl Acrylate (153,000 Tons annual capacity) and Iso Butanol (9 Tons annual capacity).

The production technology has been sourced from different companies, as for Butyl Acrylate and Acrylic Acid, the technology provider is Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation, Japan and n-Butanol technology provider is Johnson Matthey Davy Technologies Limited, United Kingdom.

Acrylics/Oxo Alcohol is not the only project launched by IOCL in 2022-23, the company has been continuously investing in developing infrastructure, capacity expansion, and refining existing operations. Capacity expansion of Barauni refinery by 3 MMTPA, Panipat refinery by 10 MMTPA, Petrochemical and Lube integration project at Gujarat Refinery and paraxylene, PTA plant at Paradip refinery are among other ongoing projects.

The Butyl Acrylate production has been a very crucial project for the Indian petrochemical industry, as there are no Butyl Acrylate manufacturers in India and this product is entirely being sourced from overseas.

As per the data, India primarily imports Butyl Acrylate from China, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Taiwan, and the UAE. However, China covers the major portion of the overall exports to India and stands on top with around 52% of total Butyl Acrylate imported by India. Commencement of this facility will effectively reduce the dependency of India on China and others for Butyl Acrylate imports.