Gujarat emerges as India’s petro capital

Ahmedabad: With the world's largest grassroot oil refinery in Jamnagar and OPaL petrochemical complex at Dahej in Bharuch district, Gujarat is now recognised as the 'petro capital' of India, officials said. Reliance Industries Ltd's (RIL) Jamnagar refinery is the largest and most complex single-site refinery in the world with 1.4 million barrels per day (MMBPD) crude processing capacity, they said.

As per the official website of RIL, the Jamnagar refinery complex houses some of the world's largest units, such as the fluidised catalytic cracker, coker, alkylation, paraxylene, polypropylene, refinery off-gas cracker and petcoke gasification plants. Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel recently threw light on the impact of the state's petrochemical sector.

"Industrial development is an important means to realise the resolve of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The chemical and petrochemical sector's sustainable growth has surpassed all (other states)," Patel said at an event. In the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit (VGGS) held in 2019, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) worth Rs 3,000 crore was signed for a bio-refinery in the Dahej Petroleum, Chemicals and Petrochemicals Investment Region (PCPIR), followed by a Rs 7,000 crore MoU in 2022 for chemical manufacturing in Dahej, officials said.