Anumber of Indian energy companies are scouting for overseas coal assets. As the local supplies are falling short, the companies are looking at Australia, Indonesia and Africa to secure coal supplies for their power project back home.

Keeping with the trend, GVK Power & Infrastructure has acquired majority stake in three Australian coal mines and a port and rail project owned by the Hancock Group. The company will be paying $1.26 billion (approx Rs 6,111 crore) for a 79 per cent stake in the Alpha and Alpha West coal mines in the Galilee Basin, and will buy Kevin's Corner coal mine and the rail and port project connecting the coal mines outright. The investment will be made through a GVK Coal Developer (Singapore) Pte. The Phase I of production is slated to commence in 2014. The company will be able to bring in more than 30 million tpa of thermal coal in India. "We will now be able to increase the capacity of our coal power business with an assured in-house supply of raw material," said GV Krishna Reddy, Chairman, GVK Group.

This apart, another Indian major, Tata Steel, has announced five year improvement programme for its IJmuiden plant in the Netherlands. It will be investing Euro 800 million (approx Rs 5,200 crore) at its IJmuiden plant by 2016. The long-term investment is for enhancing product quality, improving plant reliability and reducing costs. Post expansion, the plant's annual capacity will rise to 7.7 million tonne from 7.2 million tonne liquid steel. Also, the company has completed its investment plan at its Dudley plant in the West Midlands in the UK and opened its upgraded rail production facility at Hayange in France.

Meanwhile, GAIL has acquired a 20 per cent stake in Houston based Carrizo Oil and Gas's Eagle Ford shale acreage. The transaction marks GAIL's first shale gas asset acquisition and involves an upfront cash payment of $63.7 million (approx Rs 312 crore) to Carrizo, with the overall investment valued at around $300 million (approx Rs 1,455 crore) over a period of next five years. The acquisition has been made through GAIL's US subsidiary GAIL Global (USA) Inc. which will form a JV with Carrizo. As per the deal, GAIL will get eight wells in the acreage which are currently producing about 2,350 net barrels of oil equivalent per day.