Nuberg Engineering to build Rs 650 cr SRU project at IOCL's Koyali refinery

Last year IOC had signed an MoU with Gujarat for adding petrochemical and lube plants to its previously announced plans to expand crude oil processing capacity at the refinery

The energy and infrastructure business unit of Nuberg Engineering is set to build a Rs 650 crore sulphur recovery unit (SRU) for Indian Oil Corporation Ltd as part of the latter's expansion plans at the Koyali refinery and petrochemical complex,

Last year, state-owned IOC had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Government of Gujarat for adding petrochemical and lube plants to its previously announced plans to expand crude oil processing capacity at its Koyali refinery at Vadodara.

IOC is in the process of expanding refining capacity by 4.3 million tonnes per annum to 18 million tonnes per annum, along with plants to produce 500,000 tonnes per annum of polypropylene and 235,000 tonnes of lube oil base stock as part of its petrochemical and lube integration (LuPech) project and acrylics/oxo alcohol project at Koyali. The total investment at Koyali will be to the tune of around Rs 24,000 crore.

With the IOCL's SRU project at the Gujarat refinery, the largely export-led business of Nuberg will see domestic order book stand at roughly Rs 1200 crore.

"We were largely focusing on exports, having more than 25 years of international experience with projects in countries like Turkey, Abu Dhabi, Oman, and Morocco. However, during the pandemic we realized that we should use our capabilities for the domestic market and started looking for opportunities. We even set up a unit under energy and infrastructure business," said A K Tyagi, chairman and managing director of Nuberg Engineering.

Apart from IOCL's SRU, the company also has other projects in Gujarat. For instance, the company's first domestic project was an order by the Government of Gujarat for setting up a hydrogen filling station for buses in the state.

Similarly, the company has also undertaken developing the ethanol from biomass facility for IOCL's Panipat complex, apart from a fertilizer corporation unit in Kochi.

"Currently, domestic business forms 33 per cent of our total business. While we have just bagged the SRU project for IOCL's Koyali refinery and petrochemical complex, with more projects in the offing, by next year domestic orders could be more than 50 per cent of our total business," Tyagi added.

With the letter of intent (LoI) having been issued to Nuberg in the last week of June by IOCL, the SRU project is expected to be commissioned in 28 months.

According to Nuberg, a basic element that IOCL would eventually sell in the market, sulphur commands a premium and can be used for chemicals, fertilizers, pharmaceuticals and allied applications. User industries also make sulphuric acid for internal usage in the alkylation process.