RIL commissions first phase of PX plant at Jamnagar

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) commissioned the first phase of the paraxylene (PX) plant under the Jamnagar Petrochemical Refinery Expansion Project in Gujarat. The plant, with a capacity of 2.2 million tonnes per annum (mtpa), is built with crystallisation technology. With the commissioning of this plant, RIL’s PX capacity will more than double from 2 mtpa to 4.2 mtpa. On commissioning of the entire PX capacity, RIL will be the world’s second largest PX producer with 9 per cent of global PX capacity and an 11 per cent share in global production. The commissioning of the plant marks the beginning of the culmination of a series of projects including a refinery off-gas cracker plant, an ethane import project and a petcoke gasification project. RIL had awarded the EPC contract for the PX plant to Foster Wheeler India Private Limited. Moreover, RIL is expanding the petrochemicals production at its Jamnagar refinery and will integrate its refining units with additional petrochemicals operations at the Jamnagar site. The project envisages the setting up of mega petrochemical units, a gasification plant and a refinery off-gas cracker plant, among others. There are also plans to produce synthetic gas from coal. The expansion project is expected to be completed by June 2017.