India based and state owned Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd. is set to increase its naphtha exports next year with the completion of expansion works at its Kochi refinery to 15 million mt/year from 9.5 million mt/year. The expansion is expected to increase BPCL's naphtha production by 10%-15% -- at least 550,000 mt/year, or around 13,500 b/d -- which would enable the refiner to restore monthly exports from Kochi on the Indian southwest coast, to two cargoes, one source familiar with the matter said. But the increase in exports from Kochi would only last for around a year, as naphtha would be diverted as feedstock into BPCL's new petrochemical project. It will have the capacity to produce 47,000 mt/year of acrylic acid, 92,000 mt/year of oxo-alcohols and 190,000 mt/year of acrylates and will require 250,000 mt/year of propylene to produce 329,000 mt/year of petrochemicals.
