Petrochemical hub to come up in south Odisha’s Ganjam district at a cost of Rs 15,000 cr

Source: The Sambad

A consortium headed by Hyderabad-based Greenko Group has proposed to set up a petrochemical hub at Sonepur in south Odisha's Ganjam district. The project coming up as a part of the energy and oil city involving an investment of Rs 15000 crore, will be implemented by Sonepur Energy & Oil City Ltd, a special purpose vehicle (SPV) formed for the purpose. The petrochemical hub includes a 7.5 million tonne per annum (mtpa) petroleum refinery. A gas cracker unit will also come up at the hub with a capacity of 0.3 million tonne of ethylene. The principal end products will be polypropylene (PP) and high density polyethylene and linear low density polyethylene. A captive power plant of 500 Mw capacity and desalination plant of 120 million litre per day have also been proposed within the hub.

Sonepur (Berhampur)

The SPV also intends to set up a high-tech energy academy aimed at providing knowledge and skills in  both upstream and downstream sectors of oil and gas industry. The academy will be equipped with facilities to train engineers, geologists and other technical persons based on international industry standards in collaboration with major international oilfield companies. As part of the academy, an incubation centre to promote micro entrepreneurs in the petroleum business and rig oil & oil well simulators for training. Besides, there will be facilities for research & development (R&D), manpower development, consultancy and benchmarking. This academy would be set up a cost of Rs 100 crore. While the energy academy has got the nod of the High Level Clearance Authority (HLCA) of the Odisha government, the SPV has now sought government approval for the entire oil city project. "The HLCA was kind enough to accord approval for the High-Tech energy academy. It is necessary to mention here that the academy is totally dependent on the other projects for on-the-job training and placement. It cannot function independently as a training institute as the very objective of on-the-job training and skill development will be defeated. It is unthinkable of the high-tech energy academy without the petroleum and petrochemical units”, D Singh Deo, director, Sonepur Energy & Oil City Ltd wrote to chief minister Naveen Patnaik. The Oil City project when fully commissioned would create direct jobs for 20,000 people besides generating indirect employment avenues for over 100,000 others.

Source: Business Standard