Air Products announced the signing of a long-term supply agreement with Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL), India’s flagship national oil company. Air Products will build, own and operate (BOO) a new industrial gases complex supplying H₂, nitrogen and steam to IOCL’s Barauni Refinery in Bihar, India.

The new industrial gas complex will aid IOCL’s capacity expansion from 6-9­ MMtpy producing Euro-VI or BS-VI compliant gasoline and diesel at its Barauni complex. The industrial gas complex will include the latest generation multi-feed H₂ production facility supplying 70,000 normal cubic meters per hour (Nm³hr) of H₂ as well as steam, and a high-efficiency air separation unit producing 4,000 Nm³hr of nitrogen.

Air Products expects the new industrial gas complex for IOCL to come onstream in 2024.

Air Products’ chief operating officer Dr. Samir J. Serhan said, “We are honored to work with IOCL, the largest petroleum refining company and largest Public Sector Undertaking in India. As one of the fastest growing economies in the world, our latest strategic investment in India will provide an efficient combination of industrial gas production technologies, enabling IOCL to meet ever-increasing transportation fuel demand. We look forward to reliably supplying IOCL’s industrial gas needs for decades to come.”

Juan Gonzalez, vice president, Large Project Business Development, Air Products Middle East, Egypt, Turkey and India said, “We are proud to work with IOCL as they look to significantly expand their operations at Barauni. We look forward to bringing our global expertise, experience and world-class engineering capabilities to this project.”

Once completed, the Barauni project will be Air Products’ second BOO project in India, after the Kochi Industrial Gas complex at BPCL’s Kochi Refinery.