Sanjay Gupta on 45 Years of Building India's Refining & Petrochemical Industry

In this first episode of Molecules to Market, hosts Uwe & Nicolas sit down with Sanjay Gupta — former CEO of the Dangote Refinery & Petrochemical Project, & former Chairman & Managing Director of Engineers India Limited (EIL) — for a deep, first‑hand account of how India built its hydrocarbon industry almost from scratch.

Resources

Sanjay's profile
Global Oil Refineries (select 'India' in 'Refinery Imports' for a mapping of Indian refineries only))
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ppPLUS Linkedin Page
Youtube video of this episode

Chapters:

0:00 – Introduction & Welcome

1:56 – Sanjay's Background: From Mussoorie to Engineers India Limited

4:13 – India's Refining Sector After Independence

6:02 – Founding & Mandate of Engineers India Limited (EIL)

8:28 – Oil & Gas Struck at Mumbai High (Mid-1970s)

10:29 – Refinery Expansions, FCCs & Early Configurations (1980s)17:15 – India's First Foray into Petrochemicals (IPCL, Gujarat)

21:55 – Early Petrochemical Complexes: Maharashtra Cracker, HVJ & Pata

26:23 – Economic Liberalization & the Private Sector (Early 1990s)

27:36 – Reliance, Nayara & the National Oil Majors

30:13 – Refinery Capacity Data & Barrels-to-Tonnes32:21 – Modernization & Rising Complexity (1990-2010)

34:51 – Secondary Processing: Hydrocrackers, FCC & Cokers

38:37 – Fuels Refineries, Euro-VI & the Hydrogen Challenge43:11 – Captive Power Plants & Grid Reliability

45:42 – The Petrochemical Boom: Petro-FCC, DCC & Propylene55:29 – Integrating Steam Crackers into the Refinery

1:01:07 – Fuels vs. Petrochemicals: Refinery Flexibility

1:03:05 – The Strait of Hormuz Crisis & Switching to LPG Mode

1:07:06 – Optimal Conversion: Why India Avoids Crude-to-Chemicals

1:09:54 – Gas & Hydrogen Economics in India

1:11:52 – The Third Decade: Integrated Refineries, Cokers & Slurry Hydrocrackers

1:20:18 – Gas Supply, LNG, Biomass & Green Hydrogen

1:27:26 – Product Evacuation: Pipelines, Rail & LPG Distribution

1:34:09 – Import & Export: India as a Refined-Products Hub

1:40:43 – Reliance's Integration, Crude Sourcing & Sanctions

1:50:27 – Conversion Rates: India vs. Global Benchmarks

1:56:26 – The World's Biggest Complex That Never Was & Crude Diet

2:03:00 – Wrap-Up: The Model Refinery Project & Closing