Haldia Petrochemicals closure impact minimal on Indian Oil Corporation

KOLKATA: Indian Oil Corporation today said the impact of closure of Haldia Petrochemicals on its refinery was minimal as the facility had switched to other product mix.

"We have switched to other product mix at Haldia refinery in the wake of closure of HPL and so the impact is not much," Indian Oil Corp (IOC) Executive Director (Bengal) Y K Gupta said.

He was speaking to media on the sidelines of Oil & Gas Conservation fortnight.

He said the refinery used to supply about 50,000 tonnes of naptha per month to IOC.

Gupta said Haldia refinery also supplied about 10,000 tonnes of naptha to the Panipat facility of the company.

IOC was banking on the new 15 million tonne capacity petrochemicals plant coming up at Paradip which is likely to be on stream by March.

This new petrochemicals plant may help in better utilisation of Haldia refinery, officials expected.

Haldia Petrochemicals (HPL) is closed for the last six months over management and fresh fund crisis.

The Bengal plastic based industry has claimed that their cost has moved up due to closure of HPL.