Nayara Energy, a downstream energy company, said it is on track for entry into the petrochemicals sector with the majority of work being completed on a propylene recovery unit.

Nayara, which operates a 20 million tonne-a-year oil refinery at Vadinar in Gujarat, has adopted a phase-wise asset development strategy to enter into the petrochemicals sector.

"Under Phase-1 of the project, Nayara is setting up a 450-kilo tonne per annum polypropylene plant at its Vadinar refinery in Gujarat - a propylene recovery unit along with upgrades to the existing FCC Unit (Fluidized Catalytic Cracking Unit) and a polypropylene unit (PPU)," the firm said in a statement. The company had laid the foundation stone for their petrochemical project for a 450 KTPA polypropylene plant in November 2021.

“Phase-1 project development has achieved over 85 per cent progress and expects production of its first petrochemical product i.e. polypropylene by Q4 of 2023," it added.

Alois Virag, CEO of Nayara Energy Ltd, said, "With the completion of the FCC revamp, we have made significant progress on our Petrochemical entry. The planned phase-wise execution of the project is a testimony of Nayara's capabilities to successfully deliver on mega projects. This capability will serve us well for our larger phase II project, which will be an integrated Petrochemical complex".

With the majority of work completed on its propylene recovery unit, the company expects to commence its pre-commissioning activities in February 2023.