State owned Indian Oil Corp said it has signed an MoU with UK's BP for setting up a 1 million tonne acetic acid plant in Gujarat.

The Memorandum of Understanding is for exploring. The company said that "the potential for establishing a 50:50 joint venture to invest in a one million tonne per annum Acetic Acid plant in Gujarat together with associated gasification facilities for production of Synthesis Gas.”

The proposed Acetic Acid plant would employ BP's latest Cativa XL technology, while the gasification facilities would utilise petroleum coke feedstock from IOC.

The statement said that "A joint feasibility study is currently underway to confirm the exact configuration of the project, which would have a targeted start-up date in 2015 but did not give details of investment.”

(Sourced from PTI)