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INTERVIEW
OUR COMBINED CAPEX FOR FY 2022-23 WOULD EXCEED RS. 6,000 CRORE We have a very aggressive Capex plan as we are implementing major projects, namely the Paradip Numaligarh Pipeline, capacity augmentation from 3 to 9 million tonnes, building the Indo Bangla Product Pipeline and investing in biorefinery
BHASKAR JYOTI PHUKAN MANAGING DIRECTOR NUMALIGARH REFINERY LIMITED
What are the current trends in the petrochemicals sector and how will it impact India? We have witnessed a global disruption in supply chain logistics and because of that petrochemical commodity prices are running very high. Irrespective of petrochemical products that industries are using, be it polypropylene or polyethylene, the prices are running very high for the producers on a temporary basis. It may sound very good but in the long term this is not sustainable. We have witnessed how crude prices are moving and petrochemicals cannot be totally divorced from that reality. Probably, it will get resolved when the product production comes back to the normal stream and logistic issues are resolved. Production mainly comes out of China, and perhaps because they are on lockdown, like other commodities petrochemical products have a supply deficit both driven by the production outages and also logistic constraints. However, the high prices are temporary and the gains by producers would not be sustainable. Key milestones achieved by Numaligarh Refinery in FY 2021-22 and what is the forecast for FY 2022-23? We have not closed our accounts until now and therefore the numbers are not final but the only thing that I can tell you at this stage is that our revenues will be very good. It will be upwards of Rs. 20,000 crore. So, the top line is okay and profitability figures will also be impressive and is likely to surpass what we have achieved last year.
We have been extremely efficient with energy use so we will clock all time better and we could clock the highest production of wax. One major achievement for us as a PSU company is that we have been declared as the highest procuring entity on the GeM platform as we have been aggressively using the government's e-market place. Capex plans for FY 2022-23 and new products where you are focusing? How will it impact Numaligarh Refinery and what are the plans related to automation and digitalization across plants? We have a very aggressive Capex plan as we are implementing major projects, namely the Paradip Numaligarh Pipeline, capacity augmentation from 3 to 9 million tonnes. That means we are building a 6 million tonne refinery inside our premises. Also, we are building the Indo Bangla Product Pipeline and are also investing in the biorefinery that is coming up just adjacent to our refinery at Numaligarh. Our combined Capex for FY 2022-23 would exceed Rs. 6,000 crore. So it is a process and in FY 2021-22, we have spent in excess of Rs. 3,000 crore. So that means we have to spend around Rs. 32,000 crore in the next four years. That's what we are aspiring for so that we can complete all the projects on hand. As far as product diversification is concerned, our immediate goal is to implement the polypropylene plan which has been approved by the board. Till the time, the refinery would diversify into wax production which we would like
