Indian Oil to start up synthetic rubber plant by year-end

Mumbai, India – Indian Oil Corp is targeting the year-end for the commissioning of its polybutadiene rubber (PBR) plant at Panipat, northern India, more than a year later than its original schedule.

During the group’s first-quarter earnings call 31 July, finance chief Anuj Jain said the 60 kilotonne per annum (ktpa) PBR plant was “expected to get commissioned by December '26”.

Jain put the current cost of the project at around INR30 billion ($350 million), more than double the INR14.6 billion investment Indian Oil announced when the project was approved in March 2022. (ERJ report)

The plant is being built at Indian Oil’s existing naphtha cracker complex in Panipat and was originally scheduled for start-up in 2025.

Under the 2022 plan, the facility was to use technology supplied by Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. and source its butadiene feedstock from Indian Oil’s 138ktpa butadiene extraction unit at the Panipat complex.

Thyssenkrupp India Solutions (TKIS) was the EPC contractor for the project.

Indian Oil said at the time that the project was intended to address a deficit in PBR production in India, with the demand-supply gap expected to widen as demand increased.