Malaysia’s Air Liquide invests €45-million in oxygen plant for supplies to Indian Oil

Global supplier of industrial and medical gases, Malaysia's Air Liquide group, is investing €45 million (around Rs300 crore) in India on a new air separation unit to cater to Inddian Oil Corporation's three million metric tonne per annum (mmtpa) Naphtha Cracker complex.

The plant will be built by its Indian subsidiary Air Liquide Engineering India and is scheduled for commissioning by July 2009.

The unit will manufacture 850 tonnes per day of oxygen and will also produce liquid oxygen, nitrogen and argon.

The products will be primarily manufactured to meet the requirements of IOC's three-million metric tonne per annum (mmtpa) naphtha cracker complex, which is adjacent to its existing 12 mmtpa refinery at Panipat and is scheduled to be operational by 2010.

Jean-Pierre Duprieu, senior vice president in charge of Asia Pacific and member of Air Liquide's Executive Committee, said, ''These investments are driven by the trend towards the outsourcing of industrial gas needs and are in line with the Group's growth strategy, which includes accelerating its investments in emerging economies.''

Air Liquide says IOC has already entered into a long-term contract for its oxygen and nitrogen gas requirements with it and it wil also supply to other industrial merchant markets in northern India, where it has been present through its Indian subsidiary since 1996.

Founded in 1902, Air Liquide has presence in 72 countries, and reported a turnover of €11.8 billions euros in 2007. In Indiait has two divisions, engineering and gas.

In Malaysia, IOC and Oil India Ltd (OIL) own an equal stake in Mauritius-based IndianOil Overseas Ltd, a special purpose vehicle formed earlier this year, to acquire oil and gas acreages overseas, mainly the CIS and African countries. IOC and OIL together have assets in six countries -nine blocks in Libya, two in Yemen, and one each in Iran, Nigeria, East Timor and Gabon (West Africa).