The Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has achieved a major milestone with the commissioning of the country's first state-of -the-art Styrene Butadiene Rubber (SBR) Plant at its Panipat refinery last week.
IOC chairman R.S. Butola said, "It is a closely-guarded technology and the specific process adopted at the Panipat plant would produce high-quality synthetic rubber used in the manufacturing of automotive tyres, conveyor and fan belts.''
"The Panipat refinery is our flagship refinery and here we have built the largest naphtha-cracker plant of world-class standards," he added.
Indian Oil Corporation Limited, TSRC Corporation, Taiwan and Marubeni Corporation, Japan are in a joint venture in this project implemented under the banner of Indian Synthetic Rubber Ltd (ISRL).
It is based on butadiene available from the Panipat Naphtha Cracker Complex.
Completed at an estimated cost of `958 crore, the project is designed to produce 120,000 tonnes per annum of high-quality styrene butadiene rubber (SBR), which is currently imported for manufacture of automotive tyres and other applications.
"The SBR project is a part of our strategy for value addition to butadiene in the C4 streams generated at the plant," he added.
SBR is suitable for producing various products like tyres, conveyor belts, hose, shoe soles, industrial goods, etc with superior processing properties like flexing resistance, tear and cracking resistance and improved abrasive resistance.
The project is considered as a path-breaking venture of national importance as there is no operating capacity in the country and the entire domestic demand is met through imports.
Commissioning of this prestigious project would significantly contribute to foreign exchange savings and also generation of employment opportunities.
IndianOil has moved forward in its hydrocarbon value chain by entering the petrochemical industry. In only a few years it has become a key player in the petrochemical Industry.
ISRL is a part of the integrating petrochemical value chain and enhancing value of Indian Oil's naphthacracker at Panipat. The tyre sector is the largest end-use sector for synthetic rubber in India.
SBR, which accounts for 40 per cent of the total synthetic rubber demand, is consumed mostly in the tyre sector.
As tyre production in India is increasing at a fast pace, consumption of synthetic rubber has also simultaneously increased. This manufacturing unit of SBR was planned in the backdrop of this increasing demand for synthetic rubber and to reduce India's dependence on imports.