The new aromatics plant by state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp which is designed to produce 900,000 mt/year of paraxylene and 270,000 mt/year of benzene in Mangalore has put back startup to the third quarter of 2014, it was earlier schedule in March, sources close to the company said Wednesday.

ONGC had initially planned to start commercial operations in April 2013, but this was pushed back several times due to delays in construction.

Other than ONGC, several new PX plants across the region have also recently pushed back their startup dates to later this year

Saudi Aramco Total Refining and Petrochemical Co., or Satorp, has delayed the startup of its new aromatics plant in Jubail to June-July, from February

The aromatics plant has a production capacity of 700,000 mt/year of paraxylene and 140,000 mt/year of benzene.

In South Korea, progress on SK Innovation's new 1.3 million mt/year PX plant in Incheon has been delayed slightly. The company had planned to bring the plant on stream in June or July, but construction works are now seen delayed as the Seo-gu district office has determined that the site area of the plant has exceeded what was permitted by city authorities. The local authorities has issue the order to halt work.

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