Praxair to Build and Operate Hydrogen and Nitrogen System for Major New Indian Oil Refinery
16 November 2009
Praxair, Inc. has received a major order from the Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. (IOC) 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 a 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—i.e., lower-cost high-sulfur and heavy crude oil—and the production of low-sulfur, fuels.
IndianOil is augmenting its existing refining capacity by setting up the 300,000 barrels per day refinery at Paradip at a cost of about US$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 IOC’ largest investment on a single project. 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.
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