The Rs 3,600 crore Assam Gas Cracker Project may finally see the light. Another 44 months is the time frame that is being talked about now. Once the feedstock agreement is in place and the land acquisition is complete, we can go cracking, say officials involved in the venture. Conceived as a part of the long forgotten Assam Accord, the Gas Cracker flickered for a while in early nineties when the Assam Industrial Development Corporation (AIDC) received the Letter of Intent on January 25, 1991. Target: ethylene of 3 lakh tonnes.

Only after the Prime Minister laid the foundation in November 1994, it dawned on the government that gas available is enough to produce 2 lakh tonnes of Ethylene. Oil India and ONGC were asked to share the ‘gas burden’. OIL’s gas contribution was fixed at 5 million standard cubic meters per day (MMSCMD). This will help produce 1, 30,000 TPA of ethylene. ONGC was given a quota of 1.35 MMSCMD to produce 70,000 TPA of ethylene.

Latest estimates are disappointing. ONGC supply will be enough to produce only 28,000 TPA of ethylene in the first five years. Afterwards, the production will fall to 15,000 TPA for the ten years. The ONGC shortfall will be made up with LPG from the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC).

There is yet another hitch in deciding the zero date. It relates to the cost of gas. The government wants the Oil companies to provide a gas at a concessional rate of Rs. 600 per thousand cubic meters over a period of 15 years. This rate is not acceptable to the oil companies since the market prices have zoomed into the stratosphere in recent years.

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