Reliance Industries to invest $16 bn in petchem expansion.

Reliance Industries will invest about U.S. $16 billion in expanding petrochemical production capacity and lower feed and fuel costs to boost profits. RIL, according to a report by Barclays Equity Research, is investing U.S. $ 4.6 billion in an integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) project that will convert captive petrocoke to synthetic gas (syngas) which can be used to generate power, steam and hydrogen, which currently are being produced using expensive imported LNG. Refinery off-gas from this unit will be used to extract petrochemical compounds like ethane, ethylene, propylene, butanes and propanes at a US $ 4.5 billion Refinery off-gas cracker (ROGC). Another U.S. $ 5 billion is being spend on expanding polyester production capacity. The firm will spend another U.S. $ 1.5 billion to import ethane from US to replace higher cost propane imports and naphtha, it said. The projects will be completed by FY18.