Each plant will have a production capacity of 200,000 kilo litres of ethanol per day. These will be set up in Andhra Pradesh's Naidupeta and Madhya Pradesh's Balaghat, and are slated for commissioning by 2026. The company will use broken rice and maize for feedstock. In the long run, the company plans to have five ethanol manufacturing plants.
"We have big plans on the ethanol front. By 2025, we have to blend 20% ethanol, so we have a mission for 100% sourcing. We aim to have at least five ethanol plants in the long term but to start with, we are setting up two," said Prasad Panicker, executive chairman at Nayara Energy.
Nayara Energy, which runs a 20-million-metric-tonne capacity oil refinery at Vadinar in Gujarat, is set to open a polypropylene unit in the same facility. The company is investing INR 6,000 crore to set up a petrochemical unit with annual capacity of 450,000 tonnes. It is also investing INR 4,000 crore in modernising the refinery to improve its lifespan and reliability. These investments will be made till 2026.
Nayara Energy has 8% share each in India's refining capacity and the domestic fuel retailing markets as well as another 7% in petrochemicals.
"For the last five to six years, we have achieved reasonably good growth both in our retail business, our expansion to petrochemicals, and also having operating one of the most complex refineries," said Panicker, adding that the company plans to significantly grow its fuel retail footprint from 6,600 outlets to 10,000 in three to four years.
Panicker said Nayara Energy's vision is to diversify its product portfolio and lead in the high growth petrochemical industry while also catering to domestic energy needs.
"We are very bullish about the India story. India needs oil, whether it is auto fuels or jet fuel or any of these other petrochemicals," he said.
In its endeavour for clean fuels, the company is also studying the prospect of venturing into sustainable aviation fuel business.
Sustainable aviation fuel is another segment the company is positive about. "SAF is attractive economically and is likely to be policy-driven. We also want to be in the field provided there is feedstock available. You can always integrate a SAF unit with the refinery, otherwise it will be very expensive," Panicker said, adding the company is studying the segment to prepare its strategies.
"A good thing is that the technology is available on two fronts - ethanol to SAF and used cooking oil to SAF. But there is much to be done on these fronts," he said.
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