GAIL's the country’s premier Natural Gas Marketer & Transporter, diversified into the manufacturing and marketing of downstream HDPE & LLDPE from natural gas cracking at its Pata (Uttar Pradesh state, India) unit from 19th April 1999. The beginning was with a name plate capacity of 2,60,000 MTPA of HDPE and LLDPE. In FY 2009-10, the petrochemical business portfolio contributed over 28% of the segment gross profit.

GAIL is the only HDPE/LLDPE plant operating in Northern India and has a dominant market share in North India. The primary thrust markets for the polymers had been Western India, but, with the entry of GAIL in the HDPE & LLDPE market Verticals, today North India has also witnessed a rapid and significant growth in the polymer downstream processing Verticals. In a successful span of about a decades of establishing and marketing its grades under the brand names G-Lex & G-Lene, GAIL has along side augmented its name plate capacity of HDPE & LLDPE to 4,10,000 MTPA by adding another dedicated HDPE downstream polymerization unit of 1,00,000 MTPA.

GAIL has two trains of dedicated HDPE units of the Mitsui slurry technology license (capacity 2 x 1,00,000 MT/A) and marketing the grades under the brand name of G-lex and one train of the HDPE/LLDPE swing plant under the Novacor solution based technology license (capacity 2,10,000 MT/A).

Further by adding 6th furnace & de-bottlenecking of the plant, the GAIL’s Pata plant capacity will reach to 5,00,000 MTs of Ethylene & 5,00,000 MTs of HDPE/LLDPE producing capacity by FY 2011-12.

The petrochemicals business of GAIL has consistently achieving all set targets with respect to its production and sales all through-out.

GAIL has also formed a Joint venture company by the name of M/s Bhramaputra Cracker and Petrochemicals Ltd. (BCPL) to accelerate the GoI’s only authorized petrochemical project in the North East of India (at Lepetkata, Assam, India). The BCPL is a JV between the Government of Assam, GAIL(I) Ltd., OIL (India) Ltd. & NRL.

Further, GAIL has plans to augment the installed capacity further by putting up new plants of HDPE/LLDPE by 500 KTA at Pata, which is targeted to be operational by FY 2013-14.