India’s Odisha state approves IOC’s polyester, L&T green ammonia projects

MUMBAI (ICIS)–India’s Odisha state has approved Indian Oil Corp’s (IOC) polyester products manufacturing project and a green ammonia project from L&T Energy Green Tech, a state government official said on Thursday.

IOC’s polyester project in the Bhadrak district is expected to have units producing 100,000 tonnes/year of polyester staple fibre (PSF); 167,000 tonnes/year of drawn texture yarn (DTY); and 33,000 tonnes/year of full drawn yarn (FDY), the company reported to the Ministry of Environment in February 2021.

The plants are expected to cater to domestic demand as well as to exports to Bangladesh, Vietnam, Nepal and Indonesia.

IOC will source monoethylene glycol (MEG) and purified terephthalic acid (PTA) feedstock for the plants from its new plants at Paradip.

The 357,000 tonne/year MEG plant at Paradip was commissioned in February 2023, according to IOC’s annual report released on 2 August 2023, while it expects to commission a 1.2m tonne/year PTA line and an 800,000 paraxylene (PX) line in January 2024.

Separately, the Odisha government also cleared a proposal from L&T Energy Green Tech Ltd to set up a 320,000 tonne/year green ammonia plant in Paradip with an investment of Indian rupee (Rs) 10.3bn ($124m).

L&T Energy Green Tech is a subsidiary of Indian engineering and construction company Larsen & Toubro (L&T).

Seven other projects were approved by the eastern Indian state on 12 September, Odisha state official said, adding that timelines for these are still being worked out.

These projects are:

• SW Utkal Steel doubling production capacity in Jagatsinghpur to 24m tonnes/year Jagatsinghpur
• Jindal Ferrous’ 2.35m tonne/year carbon steel plant in Jajpur
• MSP Metallics’s 1.39m tonne/year steel plant in Jharsuguda
• Avaada Electro’s facility to produce green energy equipment including ingots, wafers, solar cells and modules in Khurda
• Berger Paints’ 400,000 tonne/year plant in Khurda
• Petronet LNG’s terminal in Gopalpur
• Toshali Cements’ capacity expansion in in Koraput

($1 = Rs83.17)