APL goes national!

Assam Petro-Chemicals Ltd, the country’s first public sector petrochemical unit having natural gas as feedstock, has reached a very significant milestone: it has joined hands with the Deendayal Port Authority to set up India’s first port-based e-methanol plant at Kandla, Gujarat. The foundation stone of this Rs 2,300-crore project was laid on Saturday by Assam Chief Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma, Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel and Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal. Important to note, Assam Petro-Chemicals Ltd is a minor entity when compared to other players in the petrochemical sector in the country, which is largely dominated by Reliance. But Assam must take pride in the fact that it is the country’s first public sector petrochemical unit, which was set up by the Government of Assam at Namrup way back in 1971. The Gujarat plant will have a capacity of 150 tonnes of e-methanol per day using renewable power, water, and biogenic CO?. It will supply clean green fuel to international ships along the Asia-Europe International Trade Corridor and is expected to generate around 3,500 direct and indirect jobs. For the record, there was a time when a massive quantity of natural gas was flared in upper Assam due to a lack of any facility to utilise it. While a portion was utilized by the Assam Gas Company Ltd, a Government of Assam PSU founded in 1962, it was in 1971 that the Assam Industrial Development Corporation promoted Assam Petro-Chemicals Ltd for methanol production from natural gas. Set up with international technological support from Mitsubishi Gas Chemicals Company of Japan, the Assam Petro-Chemicals Ltd at Namrup started its commercial production of methanol and formalin in June 1976. With increased availability of natural gas in upper Assam, APL set up another 100 TPD methanol plant in 1989 with technology supplied by ICI, UK, and a 100 TPD capacity formalin expansion plant in 1997 with technology from Derivados Forestales of the Nederlands. When the Supreme Court banned the timber industry in 1996, APL lost a big formalin market as the plywood factories of the region shut down. It was also around that time (2000) that the original Bongaigaon Refinery and Petro-Chemicals Ltd (BRPL), which was a major customer of Assam Petro-Chemicals Ltd, was reduced to just a refinery. Despite these twin setbacks, Assam Petro-Chemicals Ltd could make its own way of growth by selling formalin to markets in the rest of India, as also to Bhutan, Bangladesh and Nepal. In the past few years, the company has revamped in a big way, expanded the capacity of its three Namrup plants, and also set up its fourth plant at Boitamari in Bongaigaon. With these developments, Assam Petro-Chemicals Ltd continues to maintain its leadership position in Eastern India’s formalin market. The entry of Assam Petro-Chemicals Ltd in the national industrial arena is a very significant development in the history of Assam’s industrial journey. Its story, however, has not stopped there. Last week, it also dispatched a major consignment of methanol from Namrup to Bangladesh by two cargo vessels by using the National Waterways 2 down the Brahmaputra. Assam Petro-Chemicals Ltd indeed needs a giant round of applause.