BPCL chief operating officer R K Kashyap and ONGC director and asset manager for Assam J G Chaturvedi inked the deal in the presence of union minister of state for chemicals B K Handique, GAIL CMD Dr UD Choubey, and other senior officials of the two companies in New Delhi.

BCPL has now signed feedstock agreements with all the three suppliers - the other two being Oil India Limited (OIL) and Numaligarh Refineries Limited (NRL) - that will supply feedstock to the petrochemical plant.

BCPL will source 6.0 million metric standard cubic metres per day (MMSCMD) of gas from OIL''s Duliajan facility, which will be processed to recover C2+ liquid as feedstock. The leftover gas after recovery of C2+ liquid will be returned to the gas consumers.

>It will also use 160,000 TPA of petrochemical grade naphtha from Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL), as well as 1.35 MMSCMD of gas from ONGC up to 31 March 2012 and 1 MMSCMD thereafter.

The petrochemical complex will comprise a cracker unit, downstream polymer and integrated off-site and utilities plants. The complex has a capacity of 220,000 TPA of ethylene and 60,000 TPA of propylene.

GAIL''s existing liquid petroleum gas (LPG) plant at Lakwa will be modified to process gas for recovery of ethane and higher hydrocarbon fractions, which will be transported to Lepetkata through a pipeline.

The petrochemicals complex will make 220,000 TPA of plastic (HDPE) and polythene (LLDPE), 60,000 TPA of polypropylene (PP), 55,000 TPA of raw pyrolysis gasoline, and 12,500 TPA of fuel oil.

BCPL is a joint venture (JV) company. GAIL is the lead promoter with 70 per cent equity. Other JV partners are OIL, NRL and the Assam government, each of which has a 10 per cent stake.

>(Also see: GAIL''s Assam Gas Cracker joint venture to be a separate company) and Gail India to provide feedstock for Assam Gas Cracker Project.