NALCO drops South Africa project; puts Iran project on hold
NALCO has shelved its proposed project in South Africa while its project in Iran has been put on hold. The company had planned a Rs 17,000-crore project in South Africa to set up a five lakh tonne aluminium smelter plant and a 1,250 MW power plant. However, both these projects have been dropped after the company realised that there is no sufficient coal in the offered reserves to feed the ventures.
According to sources, NALCO has put on hold the Rs 10,000-crore Iranian project, which involved setting up a 3.3 lakh tonne aluminium smelter plant and an 800 MW power station, due to its inability to raise funds for the project.
L&T Heavy Eng LLC inaugurates plant in Oman
L&T Heavy Engineering LLC, a JV of Zubair Corporation and L&T, has opened a high tech manufacturing facility in Sohar, Oman, on 16 November 2009, to augment its existing modular fabrication facility.
The facility spread over 300,000 sq mtrs has a builtup area of 12,000 sq mtrs with an additional 100,000 sq mtrs available for future expansion.
The facility has been constructed by L&T Oman LLC, another JV between L&T and Zubair. The yard is now fully geared up for fabrication and load out of an eight legged jacket weighing 10,000 tonne. The jacket will be rolled on to a custom built barge for onward transportation to Mumbai High North offshore field of ONGC
Tata Steel gets land for Vietnam project
Tata Steel's proposed 4.5 million tpa steel plant in Vietnam, which had been facing land hurdles has seen clear light of day.
The board of Vung Anh Economic Park has proposed allocation of 725 ha to Tata Steel and its Vietnamese partners in the central province of Ha Tinh for the plant entailing a cost of $5 billion (approx Rs 23, 500 crore).
Tata Steel has a 65 per cent stake in the venture, while Vietnam's Steel Corporation and Vietnam Cement Industries Corporation hold 30 per cent and 5 per cent, respectively.
As per sources, Phase I of the project will be completed by 2012, Phase II by 2013-2014 and Phase III by 2017-2018.
Reva to set up electric car plant in Iceland
Reva Electric Car Company based in Bangalore, proposes to set up an assembling plant in Iceland. The company has entered into partnership with investment firm Northern Light Energy (NLE) for developing electric vehicles for the nation.
According to sources, under the agreement, NLE will be the exclusive distributor for Reva's NXR and NXG cars in Iceland which are scheduled for global launch in 2010 and 2011, respectively.
Steel Strips mulls wheel rim plant in Morocco
Chandigarh headquartered Steel Strips Wheels is planning to conducting the feasibility study for setting up a wheel rim plant in Morocco.
The feasibility study is likely to begin in 2010. In case the company decides to go ahead with the Morocco plant, it hopes to begin the construction in early 2013. The company foresees an investment of Euro 20 million (approx Rs 140 crore) in the proposed plant. Recently, the company has bagged an order to supply the full requirement of wheel rims for French car-maker Renault's greenfield plant in Morocco. It is likely to start supplying for this project from the last quarter of 2011 from its Chennai plant.
The company expects to supply more than three million wheel rims in five years to Renault, which is expected to lead to foreign exchange earnings of about Euro 28 million (approx Rs 200 crore).
L N Mittal exits Kazakh oilfield JV with ONGC
Lakshmi Mittal has exited the JV with ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL) to develop Satpayev oil block in Kazakhstan.
According to sources, Mittal Investments has decided against pursuing the investment opportunity and it will now be developed by OVL alone.
ONGC Mittal Energy, a JV of Mittal and ONGC, was to have acquired a 25 percent stake in the block from state-owned KazMunaiGaz and invested a total of $400 million (approx Rs 1,840 crore) in the project. KazMunaiGas is to be the operator of the field by holding the remaining 75 per cent stake.
The Satpayev block, situated in the Pre-Caspian Basin in Caspian Sea, covers an area of 1,582 sq km.
OMEL delays exploration in Nigeria
ONGC-Mittal Energy Ltd (OMEL) has deferred its plans to start Phase I exploration of hydrocarbon in Nigerian block OPL-279 till end-December 2009 owing to technical reasons.
The JV between OVL and Mittal Investments had earlier planned to start exploratory activity in the block by August 2009. Due to unsatisfactory performance of the chosen rig, drilling in OPL-279 was cancelled. Subject to rigs becoming available, exploration is expected to commence by end- December.
OMEL has reportedly chosen a new rig which is likely to commence drilling for OPL-279 and be used for drilling for OPL-285 in 2010, subject to Nigerian authorities' approval.
OPL-279 is a deepwater offshore exploration block in Nigeria spread over 1,125 sq km. The JV, through its wholly-owned subsidiary company OMEL Exploration & Production Nigeria, holds 45.5 per cent participating interest and operatorship of the block. The other partners in the block are EMO, a local Nigerian company with 40 per cent equity, and TOTAL, with 14.5 per cent participating interest. The block is in the exploration phase.
The other block, OPL-285, is also a deepwater offshore exploration block spread over 1,167 sq km. OMEL, through its wholly-owned subsidiary OMEL Energy Nigeria, holds 64.33 per cent participating interest and operatorship of the block. The other partners in the block are EMO with 10 per cent stake and TOTAL with 25.67 per cent.
Work begins on new India-Nepal road link
The Nepal Government has commenced work on a new road link to India, decreasing the distance of the highway connecting the two countries to 76.2 km.
The new fast track highway coming up at a cost of $706.66 million (approx Rs 3,285.97 crore) is to stretch from Kathmandu to Birgunj, bordering India, significantly bringing down the transportation costs between the two countries.
The new four-lane 22-mtrs wide highway is expected to be completed within the next three years and is likely to have a 1.3 km long tunnel in between.
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