Through the special purpose vehicle (SPV) ONGC Petro-additions Ltd. (OPaL), India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC) has proposed building a petrochemical complex in the Dahej Special Economic Zone (D-SEZ) in the western Indian state of Gujarat.

The planned complex will comprise an ethylene cracker and associated units and polymer plants to manufacture 1.1 million tonnes of ethylene, 400,000 tonnes of propylene, 150,000 tonnes of benzene, and 115,000 tonnes of butadiene per year.

The ethylene cracker, which will be built on a turnkey basis by a consortium of The Linde Group and Samsung Engineering, will be the largest such plant in India. In this project, Linde will provide the steam cracker technology, perform basic engineering, and supply critical components. Samsung will perform the detail engineering, supply the remaining components, and construct and assemble the plant.

The complex, which will serve as the anchor industry in D-SEZ, will help to develop various plastic processing industries within the zone and take advantage of export opportunities, according to ONGC.

ONGC owns a 26% stake in the project and Gujarat State Petroleum Corp. owns 5%. According to media reports cited in a November 2008 Dow Jones Newswires article about the project, ONGC intends to sell up to a 25% stake in the venture to raise funds given the current state of the global credit market. Also, the reports stated that Gail (India) Ltd. has approved taking up to a 19% stake in OPaL. The anticipated completion date of the complex is late 2012.