JBF Petrochemicals (Mumbai / India; www.jbfindia.com) has awarded an engineering contract for its PTA project in Mangalore / India to Technip (Paris / France; www.technip.com). The project will have the capacity to produce 1.25m t/y of PTA, the main feedstock for PET, and is scheduled for completion in the first half of 2015, Technip said.

Located in Mangalore’s special economic zone, the plant will be based on BP (London / UK; www.bp.com) technology – see Plasteurope.com of 10.07.2012. Technip will provide basic engineering, front-end engineering design, detailed engineering and procurement services plus materials and construction management services.

B.C. Arya, chairman of parent company JBF Industries, said the project is highly strategic for the group. “With the commissioning of this plant, it will be a major step for JBF towards backward integration,” he stated.

According to the JBF website, the PTA project is estimated to cost USD 600m (EUR 450m), and PX feedstock will be sourced from ONGC Mangalore and Petrochemicals Ltd’s (OMPL) new aromatics complex, expected to start up in the second quarter of this year. Once the aromatics hub is commissioned, it will be able to turn out 920,000 t/y of PX, 440,000 t/y of PP as well as 454,000 t/y of propylene, Plasteurope.com's Polyglobe capacity database (www.polyglobe.net) shows.