Praxair, Inc. has received a major order from the Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. for the long-term supply of hydrogen and nitrogen gases to its new 300,000 barrels per day Greenfield oil refinery, which is being built at Paradip, Orissa on the eastern coast of India.
Praxair will build a 90 million standard cubic feet per day hydrogen plant and 500 tons per day nitrogen plant at the Paradip refinery. Start-ups of the plants are scheduled for the first quarter of 2012 when the refinery will be commissioned.
IndianOil’s refinery will use the hydrogen to enable the processing of various crude oil slates and the production of low sulfur, clean fuels.
“This business agreement with Praxair is consistent with IndianOil’s strategy to outsource non-core operations to experienced global partners who can bring value to our refinery projects through their operational expertise,” said IndianOil’s Director (Refineries) Mr. B.N. Bankapur. “IndianOil selected Praxair after a global competitive bidding process and we are confident that Praxair, with its long experience in supporting the refining industry, will provide us with safe, reliable and efficient operations,” Mr. Bankapur added.
“We are delighted to be partnering with IndianOil on its new, prestigious refinery project at Paradip,” said Mr. Joe Cappello, president of Praxair Asia. “Using state-of-the-art technology, Praxair is committed to playing a significant role in helping the refining industry globally to meet increasingly stringent environmental regulations for transportation fuels today and in the future,” Mr. Cappello added.
IndianOil is augmenting its existing refining capacity by setting up the 300,000 barrels per day refinery at Paradip at a cost of about U.S.$6.5 billion. This will help meet the burgeoning energy demands of primarily the Indian domestic market and partly the South-East Asian export market expected in the near future.
This is the largest investment of India’s leading “Fortune 500” company on a single project. The new refinery is designed to process lower-cost high-sulfur and heavy crude oil. With the completion of the Paradip refinery and other capacity expansions, IndianOil’s refining capacity including subsidiaries will increase to more than 1.62 million barrels per day by 2011-12 from its current 1.2 million barrels per day.
Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. is India’s flagship national oil company and its downstream petroleum major. It is India’s largest commercial enterprise with more than $60 billion in annual sales and is ranked #105 on the FORTUNE “Global 500” listing.