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Haldia Petrochemicals resumes operations

Haldia Petrochemicals Limited, which was shut down on December 11 after a technical fault in the 466,000-tonnes-a-year naphtha cracker, has resumed operations, a company official said.

"We are back on stream," a HPL spokesman said on Monday.

The HPL plant -- eastern India's only operational petrochemcials unit -- had re-started operations at 2000 IST on December 14, he said.

Haldia Petrochemicals managing director Richard Saldanha had told Reuters last week that the firm would use the shutdown to resolve pending maintenance issues in the naphtha plant.

HPL can produce around 50,000 tonnes of polymers a month but is currently operating below this capacity because of a glut in the market. HPL officials said the loss in production was less acute as output of polymers was already lower.

Haldia Petrochemicals, which has paid-up equity of Rs 11.54 billion and a huge debt of Rs 42.68 billion, has been seeking fresh equity to reduce its debt burden.

Indian Oil Corporation, the country's largest refiner, has offered to buy a 26-per cent stake in the unit, but talks between IOC and the promoters of HPL -- the West Bengal state government, the Soros Chatterjee group and the Tata business group -- have not made much progress.

Officials say there are differences over valuation of the plant and goodwill.

HPL buys its naphtha from IOC and two other state-run firms, Bharat Petroleum Corp and Hindustan Petroleum Corp. It also imports some of its requirement from West Asia.

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