India’s Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd. shelved a planned refinery expansion to focus on boosting its petrochemical production capacity, which may cost as much as 470 billion rupees ($5.7 billion). A shifting energy landscape primarily driven by the uptake of electric vehicles has prompted MRPL to focus its efforts on increasing output of chemicals that can be used for plastics and paints, Sanjay Varma, managing director, said in an interview. The company’s major investment will be on a new production plant in the southern Indian state of Karnataka, he said.
Indian and Chinese refiners along with majors such as Exxon Mobil Corp. are betting on petrochemicals to underpin future oil demand as the transition to electric vehicles chips away at consumption of transport fuels. The new MRPL plant is likely to be operational in the next three to five years, said Varma.
