OREANDA-NEWS. Indian Oil Corporation Ltd organized the second edition of its popular Petrochemical Conclave at Gurgaon. The Conclave, with the theme, “South Asia – The Land of Opportunities” was inaugurated by Shri Indrajit Pal IAS, Secretary, Department of Chemicals and Fertilizers, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, Govt of India. In his inaugural address, Shri Pal highlighted the opportunities in the South Asian Region for Petrochemicals and expressed concern that South Asia continued to be the least integrated of Regions in so far as Regional trade was concerned. He also highlighted the need to improve the manufacturing output of Indian Industry and outlined various measures taken by the Govt of India to improve it, including the concept of consolidation and clustering via the Petroleum, Chemicals and Petrochemicals, Investment Region (PCPIR). "There were various constraints faced by the Industry such as power, water and infrastructure," he added.

Earlier delivering his welcome address, Shri AMK Sinha Dir(Planning and BD), IndianOil remarked on the various initiatives undertaken by Indianoil in the Petrochemicals space as also the initiatives undertaken to improve its business and supply chain.

Shri RS Butola, Chairman, IndianOil in his key note address spoke about the opportunities in the neghbouring markets and the role of Petrochemicals in the development of the Region. Delving deep in to the subject of feedstocks, Shri Butola spoke about the unpredictability of crude oil price movements and struck a note of optimism regarding increased availability of feedstocks and possible softening of the crude oil markets riding on the increased availability via the US Shale Gas route. Shri Butola also spoke on the new projects being conceptualized by IndianOil as waypoints in its journey to become a major player in the Petrochemicals sector.

Smt Neelkamal Darbari, IAS, Jt Secy, Chemicals and Petrochemicals in a detailed and erudite address spoke about South Asian Demographics and emphasized the need to improve manufacturing in India and the need to take the contribution of manufacturing in India’s GDP to levels of 25% from the current levels of 15%.

Mr Siddharth Mitra, Executive Director(Petrochemicals), IndianOil in his presentation touched upon IndianOil’s Petrochemical Business and the key drivers and challenges. The second edition of IndianOil's Petrochemical conference witnessed the participation of more than 300 delegates from across the world.