Sibur and Reliance Industries (RIL) have partnered to form a joint venture (JV) company named Reliance Sibur Elastomers to produce 100,000tpa of butyl rubber in Jamnagar, India.
The JV will invest $450m to construct the new production facility, which is expected to commence production in mid-2014.
Reliance Sibur Elastomers will be the first manufacturer of butyl rubber in India and the fourth largest supplier of butyl rubber in the world.
The JV will meet demand for synthetic rubber from the Indian automotive industry of over 75,000tpa, which is currently met by imports.
RIL will hold a 74.9% stake in the JV, with Sibur holding the remaining shares.
As part of the JV, Sibur and RIL have also entered into a technology licence agreement, under which Sibur's proprietary butyl rubber production technology will be used at the new facility.
Sibur will develop a basic engineering design for the facility and also train the JV's personnel at its production site in Togliatti, Russia.
RIL utilises two adjacent refineries in its largest oil-processing complex in Jamnagar to process a combined 1.24m barrels of oil a day.
Sibur, which provides feedstock to gas processing facilities, operates the entire petrochemical process chain from gas processing, production of monomers, plastics and synthetic rubbers to the processing of plastics.
