INDIAN PETROCHEMICAL INDUSTRY

Petrochemicals are backbone of chemical industry. Although the origin of petrochemical

industry in world was in 1920, however, sixties marks the era of petrochemicals in India when
Union Carbide set up first ethylene complex with capacity 20,000 TPA in 1963 in Mumbai. It
was followed by NOCIL with 60,000 TPA ethylene complexes in 1968 in Thane near Mumbai
and PSF plant of Chemical and Fibers India Ltd.(CAFI) at Thane - Belapur road. Indian
Petrochemical Corp. Ltd. (IPCL) set up first integrated petrochemical complex in 1970 in public
sector at Vadodara. With the modest beginning in 1960 by setting up of 20,000 tonnes naphtha
cracked by Union Carbide in Mumbai, Indian petrochemical industry has sustained a high and
steady rate of growth during last four decades and has entered the world market. The
petrochemical industry has been the fastest growing sectors in India and become a major
segment of chemical industry, which is growing faster than industries overall and within
chemicals. It has posed serious threat to chemical industry based on natural feedstock – Biomass
and Coal. The petrochemical industry is major supplier of chemical inputs to a large and growing
number of downstream. The Indian chemical industry ranks twelfth by volume in the world for
production of chemicals and accounts for about 14percent in the general index of industrial
production and 17.6percent in the manufacturing sector. It accounts for 13-14percent of total
exports and 8-9percent of total imports of the country. It contributes about 3 percent to the GDP
[Annual Report, 2004-05]. It contributes 13percent of the manufacturing industry's value added
and 8percent of the total exports of the country.

BASIC PETROCHEMICALS
C1 group Methane, CO – H2 synthesis, synthesis gas derivatives
C2 group Ethane, ethylene, ethylene derivatives, acetylene
C3 group Propane, propylene and propylene derivatives
C4, C5 group Butadiene, Butanes, Butenes, Pentane, Pentene,
Isoprene, Cyclopentadiene
Aromatic Benzene, Toluene , Xylenes Naphthalene, BTX derivatives

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