GAIL inks pact to market polymers

India’s state-run gas transmission utility GAIL signed an agreement with Brahmaputra Cracker and Polymer Ltd. to market all the petrochemical products from the latter’s upcoming natural gas and naphtha cracker complex in the northeastern state of Assam. GAIL owns a 70% stake in BCPL, whose cracker at Lepetkata in the Dibrugarh district of Assam state is expected to be ready toward the end of 2012. Under the deal, GAIL will market 220,000 metric tons (mt) of high density polyethylene and linear low density polyethylene along with 60,000 mt of polypropylene produced annually from the BCPL plant, the company said in a statement. The agreement is expected to add polypropylene to GAIL’s product portfolio and raise its polymer marketing volumes by more than 50% to 780,000 mt/year by fiscal 2012-2013 (April-March). (August 2, 2010)