Royal Dutch Shell, the world's third largest company, has set up a bitumen plant at the Uluberia Industrial Estate, its first such unit in the country. The unit with a capacity of 50,000 tpa went on stream on December 21, 2006.

The plant will produce a range of products such as emulsion, crumb, rubber-modified emulsion and polymer modified emulsion. The company expects significant demand for its products with the rise in road connectivity across the country.

Earlier, in January 2006, Shell Bitumen India Private Ltd (SBIPL) had joined hands with ONGC to foray into manufacturing bituminous products and marketing. The MoU was aimed at carrying out a joint market research to evaluate India's bitumen and Value Added Bitumen market potential over the next 10 years and conduct an economic evaluation of investing in a stand-alone refinery in India.

Starting with the newly commissioned bitumen plant in West Bengal, Shell plans to set up 5-7 such plants in the medium term.

Shell is the largest international investor in India's energy sector with investments of $1 billion. Shell has similar facilities in China and Philippines.

Also See:

ONGC signs MoU with Shell Bitumen (09-Feb-06)