Public sector Hindustan Petroleum Corporation is planning to invest $1.5 billion in its petrochemical complex project, featuring refinery, naphtha cracker and aromatic plant.

The company proposes to forge separate joint ventures with overseas and domestic companies for each of these individual projects, according to O P Pradhan, general manager, corporate planning and strategy, HPCL.

"We are currently in talks with several overseas companies for JVs in Vizag project," he told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar on natural gas and petrochemical infrastructure development opportunities in Andhra.

The company will hold majority share holding in all the three components of the Vizag project. However the equity pattern is still to be finalised, he said.

The company has joined the Visakhapatnam Petroleum, chemicals and petrochemicals investment region as the anchor client with a proposed establishment of 9 mmpta capacity refinery project costing Rs 10,900 crore (Rs 109 billion) which is scheduled to be operational by the year 2010-11 besides expanding existing Vizag refinery's capacity to 9 mmpta from the present 7.5 mmpta.

Pradhan also said that the company would talk to ONGC, which proposing to establish a 15 mmpta oil refinery at Kakinada, to share the naphtha cracker plant proposed by HPCL at Vizag.