ONGC Videsh posts Rs.846-cr Q1 net
ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL), the wholly owned subsidiary of ONGC, has earned a net profit of Rs.846 crore in the first quarter of 2010-11. “As quarterly accounts have been compiled for the first time, the corresponding figures for the same quarter of the previous year are not available,” the company said in a statement.
The company had reported a total net profit of Rs. 2,090 crore in the financial year 2009-10. If the first quarter performance were to be maintained throughout the current fiscal then the company would show an annualised net profit increase of 62 per cent. OVL is now involved in 40 projects in 15 countries, out of which nine are producing assets. RS Sharma, ONGC group Chairman, said, “The robust growth of the company during the first quarter augurs very well for the further strengthening of ONGC's overseas portfolios which hold significant potential.”
NTPC aims to produce coal from Jharkhand mine by next fiscal
NTPC Ltd plans to produce coal from its captive mine in Jharkhand by the next financial year.
“We have just got the environment clearance and we hope to produce coal from Pakri Barwadhi mine in 2011-12,” said the CMD Arup Roy Choudhury. NTPC has exclusive exploration rights in five mines in the country and joint rights with state-owned counterpart Coal India in two others in Jharkhand. NTPC aims to lock-in fuel supplies to feed its rising generation capacity, currently at 32,200 MW, which it expects to rise to 75,000 MW by 2017.
The company would also take a fresh look at its investment plans in the hydro power segment in the wake of the scrapping of its 600 MW hydel project in Uttarakhand on environmental concerns.
“We are seriously thinking on how much commitment we should have on hydro (projects),” Choudhury said.
The Centre had on August 21 scrapped NTPC’s Loharinag Pala project as environmentalists expressed their concerns over the impact of diverting a river for the project. “We spent a lot of money on the project, but it got shelved. So we have to look at it (hydro power projects) again,” he said.
NTPC had invested around Rs.650 crore in the project, while orders worth more than Rs. 2,000 crore had been placed. The company has, subsequently, got an assurance from the Power Ministry that it would be “duly compensated” for the money that is has already spent and that a Cabinet note is being prepared on the issue.
NTPC is currently building two other hydro projects — an 800-MW project in Koldam in Himachal Pradesh and a 520-MW project in Tapovan Vishnugad in Uttarakhand.
HPCL’s black oil terminal opened
Secretary Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas S Sundareshan recently inaugurated HPCL’s prestigious new black oil terminal at Visakhapatnam.
The new terminal at Visakhapatnam is the largest exclusive black oil terminal in India and industry's first fully automated Black Oil terminal with a product handling capacity of about 94,000kL. The terminal will handle products FO-180/ 380/ 500, Bitumen, LVFO, FO Blend, LSHS, HFHSD, LDO, JBO and Lube Oil.
This project has strategic importance as it creates space for Visakha Refinery expansion for production of EURO IV grade fuel (Diesel Hydro Treatment Unit Project). The terminal was developed on a 38-acre plot of land by as a fast track project by the marketing projects group of HPCL within a record time of 15 months using all advanced project management techniques.
The product receipt to the terminal will be from Visakha Refinery as well as jetties and product dispatch will be by road, rail and through pipelines for bunkering / tanker loading.
The terminal will be the first site with provision for blending of products for customized needs of marketing which will make it the full fledged eastern hub for industries and for bunkering, according to a HPCL release.
S Venkatraman joins GAIL as director
S Venkatraman has become Director (Business Development) of GAIL (India) Ltd, the company said.
Prior to joining as Director (Business Development), he was Executive Director (Business Development), GAIL since April 2008, a company statement said here. “As Director (BD), he is in charge of GAIL's business development, project development, petrochemical operations, exploration and production and global ventures of the company,” it said.
Prior to his assignment as Executive Director (BD), he was incharge of marketing for various products of GAIL including natural gas, petrochemicals, liquid hydrocarbons and telecom bandwidth at Ahmedabad zonal office.
Venkatraman, who jointed GAIL as manager in December 1990, also headed the Petrochemicals Marketing Department at corporate office as General Manager (Marketing).
JSW Jharkhand unit mine goes ‘no-go’
JSW Steel, the country’s second-biggest steel producer with a capacity of 7.8 million tonnes per annum (mtpa), may have to go slow on its Jharkhand plans as its captive coal mine in the state has fallen under the ‘no-go’ area.
Though JSW will not see any immediate effect of the regulation on its Jharkhand mine, it will need a separate mine if the issue is not resolved by the time the plant is ready. The company plans to build a 10 mtpa plant in Jharkhand and is currently acquiring land for the project. It had been allotted iron ore and coking coal mine in the state with reserves of 250 million tonne each. It also has plans to build a 900 mega watt captive power plant and a 6 mtpa cement plant in the state. The total proposed area for the plant is 6,500 acres, which is currently being acquired.
“We plan to have an up and running capacity of 10 mtpa in Jharkhand by 2020, which means the construction work at the project should start by around 2013. By then if the issue is not cleared then the government will have to allot us a different mine,” said Sheshagiri Rao, director-finance, JSW Steel.
Recently, the ministry of environment and forests classified 203 coal blocks, including both coking and thermal coal, as falling under ‘no-go’ zone, which is almost 48 per cent of the total coal mining area available in the country. It also put 350,000 hectares (ha) under the area where environmental clearance could be given.
But later, due to incessant lobbying by the coal ministry and corporates, the number of blocks under the ‘no-go’ zone was decreased to 126, leading to a 10 per ent increase in the mining area.
Besides JSW Steel, there are several companies which see their expansion plans in jeopardy due to the recent move of environment ministry.
However, JSW Steel feels it will tide over the situation as the planned construction of the plant is almost three years away from now.
Currently, the company is focussing on its upcoming plant in West Bengal, where it plans to set up a capacity of 3 mtpa by March 2014 and expansion of its Vijayanagar capacity to 12 mtpa from 10 mtpa. It plans to have a running capacity of 16 mtpa by March 2014.
SAIL, BHEL to team up for making high-grade steel
The Heavy Industries Ministry is floating a tripartite joint venture with two public sector units and a foreign collaborator to manufacture cold-rolled grain-oriented (CRGO) steel. The high-grade steel used in the manufacture of power equipment is currently imported. While the MoU between BHEL and SAIL is expected to be signed in a week, the choice of the foreign technical partner is still being finalized. Korean firm Posco is expected to be the front-runner for this position.
“With power equipment manufacturers having huge orders, the need for domestic CRGO steel capacity is urgent. We may build a new plant for this, for which we will use 300-400 acres from SAIL's existing facilities. The investment in a new production facility will be around Rs 8,000 crore,” BS Meena, Secretary, Heavy Industries, told the media. He added that besides Posco, the Ministry is also talking to other global players such as Vizstahl from Russia and an Italian steel maker.
Steel industry sources said that SAIL has land in Maharashtra and Jharkhand where such a plant could come up. SAIL is also considering a CRGO procurement deal from the existing SAIL-Posco venture. Earlier, SAIL and Posco had signed an MoU for a 1.5-million-tonne-per-annum (MTPA) steel plant to come up at SAIL’s Bokaro facility. Posco will be bringing in its patented FINEX technology for this.
“CRGO steel technology is closely held by a few global players that quote very high prices of around Rs.2 lakh a tonne,” said Meena.
ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL), the wholly owned subsidiary of ONGC, has earned a net profit of Rs.846 crore in the first quarter of 2010-11. “As quarterly accounts have been compiled for the first time, the corresponding figures for the same quarter of the previous year are not available,” the company said in a statement.
The company had reported a total net profit of Rs. 2,090 crore in the financial year 2009-10. If the first quarter performance were to be maintained throughout the current fiscal then the company would show an annualised net profit increase of 62 per cent. OVL is now involved in 40 projects in 15 countries, out of which nine are producing assets. RS Sharma, ONGC group Chairman, said, “The robust growth of the company during the first quarter augurs very well for the further strengthening of ONGC's overseas portfolios which hold significant potential.”
NTPC aims to produce coal from Jharkhand mine by next fiscal
NTPC Ltd plans to produce coal from its captive mine in Jharkhand by the next financial year.
“We have just got the environment clearance and we hope to produce coal from Pakri Barwadhi mine in 2011-12,” said the CMD Arup Roy Choudhury. NTPC has exclusive exploration rights in five mines in the country and joint rights with state-owned counterpart Coal India in two others in Jharkhand. NTPC aims to lock-in fuel supplies to feed its rising generation capacity, currently at 32,200 MW, which it expects to rise to 75,000 MW by 2017.
The company would also take a fresh look at its investment plans in the hydro power segment in the wake of the scrapping of its 600 MW hydel project in Uttarakhand on environmental concerns.
“We are seriously thinking on how much commitment we should have on hydro (projects),” Choudhury said.
The Centre had on August 21 scrapped NTPC’s Loharinag Pala project as environmentalists expressed their concerns over the impact of diverting a river for the project. “We spent a lot of money on the project, but it got shelved. So we have to look at it (hydro power projects) again,” he said.
NTPC had invested around Rs.650 crore in the project, while orders worth more than Rs. 2,000 crore had been placed. The company has, subsequently, got an assurance from the Power Ministry that it would be “duly compensated” for the money that is has already spent and that a Cabinet note is being prepared on the issue.
NTPC is currently building two other hydro projects — an 800-MW project in Koldam in Himachal Pradesh and a 520-MW project in Tapovan Vishnugad in Uttarakhand.
HPCL’s black oil terminal opened
Secretary Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas S Sundareshan recently inaugurated HPCL’s prestigious new black oil terminal at Visakhapatnam.
The new terminal at Visakhapatnam is the largest exclusive black oil terminal in India and industry's first fully automated Black Oil terminal with a product handling capacity of about 94,000kL. The terminal will handle products FO-180/ 380/ 500, Bitumen, LVFO, FO Blend, LSHS, HFHSD, LDO, JBO and Lube Oil.
This project has strategic importance as it creates space for Visakha Refinery expansion for production of EURO IV grade fuel (Diesel Hydro Treatment Unit Project). The terminal was developed on a 38-acre plot of land by as a fast track project by the marketing projects group of HPCL within a record time of 15 months using all advanced project management techniques.
The product receipt to the terminal will be from Visakha Refinery as well as jetties and product dispatch will be by road, rail and through pipelines for bunkering / tanker loading.
The terminal will be the first site with provision for blending of products for customized needs of marketing which will make it the full fledged eastern hub for industries and for bunkering, according to a HPCL release.
S Venkatraman joins GAIL as director
S Venkatraman has become Director (Business Development) of GAIL (India) Ltd, the company said.
Prior to joining as Director (Business Development), he was Executive Director (Business Development), GAIL since April 2008, a company statement said here. “As Director (BD), he is in charge of GAIL's business development, project development, petrochemical operations, exploration and production and global ventures of the company,” it said.
Prior to his assignment as Executive Director (BD), he was incharge of marketing for various products of GAIL including natural gas, petrochemicals, liquid hydrocarbons and telecom bandwidth at Ahmedabad zonal office.
Venkatraman, who jointed GAIL as manager in December 1990, also headed the Petrochemicals Marketing Department at corporate office as General Manager (Marketing).
JSW Jharkhand unit mine goes ‘no-go’
JSW Steel, the country’s second-biggest steel producer with a capacity of 7.8 million tonnes per annum (mtpa), may have to go slow on its Jharkhand plans as its captive coal mine in the state has fallen under the ‘no-go’ area.
Though JSW will not see any immediate effect of the regulation on its Jharkhand mine, it will need a separate mine if the issue is not resolved by the time the plant is ready. The company plans to build a 10 mtpa plant in Jharkhand and is currently acquiring land for the project. It had been allotted iron ore and coking coal mine in the state with reserves of 250 million tonne each. It also has plans to build a 900 mega watt captive power plant and a 6 mtpa cement plant in the state. The total proposed area for the plant is 6,500 acres, which is currently being acquired.
“We plan to have an up and running capacity of 10 mtpa in Jharkhand by 2020, which means the construction work at the project should start by around 2013. By then if the issue is not cleared then the government will have to allot us a different mine,” said Sheshagiri Rao, director-finance, JSW Steel.
Recently, the ministry of environment and forests classified 203 coal blocks, including both coking and thermal coal, as falling under ‘no-go’ zone, which is almost 48 per cent of the total coal mining area available in the country. It also put 350,000 hectares (ha) under the area where environmental clearance could be given.
But later, due to incessant lobbying by the coal ministry and corporates, the number of blocks under the ‘no-go’ zone was decreased to 126, leading to a 10 per ent increase in the mining area.
Besides JSW Steel, there are several companies which see their expansion plans in jeopardy due to the recent move of environment ministry.
However, JSW Steel feels it will tide over the situation as the planned construction of the plant is almost three years away from now.
Currently, the company is focussing on its upcoming plant in West Bengal, where it plans to set up a capacity of 3 mtpa by March 2014 and expansion of its Vijayanagar capacity to 12 mtpa from 10 mtpa. It plans to have a running capacity of 16 mtpa by March 2014.
SAIL, BHEL to team up for making high-grade steel
The Heavy Industries Ministry is floating a tripartite joint venture with two public sector units and a foreign collaborator to manufacture cold-rolled grain-oriented (CRGO) steel. The high-grade steel used in the manufacture of power equipment is currently imported. While the MoU between BHEL and SAIL is expected to be signed in a week, the choice of the foreign technical partner is still being finalized. Korean firm Posco is expected to be the front-runner for this position.
“With power equipment manufacturers having huge orders, the need for domestic CRGO steel capacity is urgent. We may build a new plant for this, for which we will use 300-400 acres from SAIL's existing facilities. The investment in a new production facility will be around Rs 8,000 crore,” BS Meena, Secretary, Heavy Industries, told the media. He added that besides Posco, the Ministry is also talking to other global players such as Vizstahl from Russia and an Italian steel maker.
Steel industry sources said that SAIL has land in Maharashtra and Jharkhand where such a plant could come up. SAIL is also considering a CRGO procurement deal from the existing SAIL-Posco venture. Earlier, SAIL and Posco had signed an MoU for a 1.5-million-tonne-per-annum (MTPA) steel plant to come up at SAIL’s Bokaro facility. Posco will be bringing in its patented FINEX technology for this.
“CRGO steel technology is closely held by a few global players that quote very high prices of around Rs.2 lakh a tonne,” said Meena.
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