India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi will dedicate Numaligarh Refinery Ltd.’s (NRL) wax plant on Feb. 5, at a public function to be held in Dibrugarh. The Numaligarh Refinery, which is located at Numaligarh, Assam, is owned by Numaligarh Refinery Ltd., a joint venture between Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd. (BPCL), Oil India and the government of Assam.

The 50,000-metric tonne wax plant is the country’s largest wax-producing unit with indigenous technology developed by the Indian Institute of Petroleum (IIP) of Dehradun, Engineers India Ltd. and NRL.

Leveraging on the inherent properties of wax-rich crude oil from the oil fields of Assam, the plant was designed to produce superior quality paraffin and semi-microcrystalline wax.

Currently, a large part of India’s paraffin wax requirement is being supplied by imports. Thus, NRL’s wax plant, which will reduce India’s wax deficit is said to be a worthy example of the government’s “Make in India” campaign. NRL is also exploring opportunities to export wax to neighboring countries.

Investment in the plant was INR 676 crore (USD 99.3 million). The plant was actually commissioned in March 2015.