Coal news and updates

State-owned power producer NTPC will be approaching the Supreme Court to seek a clarification on the de-allocation of its three coal mines located in Odisha and Chattisgarh, according to the company’s chairman and managing director Arup Roy Choudhury.

The NTPC chairman also said that his company was looking to spend anywhere between R6,000-10,000 crore to purchase stressed thermal power assets that were on the block and had been offered to it.

On September 24, the Supreme Court declared the allocation of 214 coal blocks since 1993 as illegal and directed such allocations to be withdrawn.

According to Bloomberg, the mines that have been de-allocated are estimated to produce around 50 million tons (mt) of coal till March 2015, which accounts for 9% of India's coal production.

“We are still reading the Supreme Court verdict. One of our mines has been cleared and the Supreme Court has been kind enough to justofy why it has not been put in this list (of de-allocated mines,” Roy Choudhury said. “The same justification can be applied to a couple of our other mines,” Choudhury said.

The company will approach the apex court to seek clarification on the status for its Dulanga and Kerandari mines in Odisha and Talaipalli mine in Chattisgarh. These mines can continue mining coal till March 2015, according to the court's judgment. Only one of NTPC's coal mine, the Pakri- Barwadih coal block in Jharkand, was spared.

The company currently imports 9.7 mt of coal per year, and Roy Choudhury stressed that the company, as well as the country should reduce dependence on imported coal as it is subject to foreign regulatory policies, which may be prove to be detrimental (as has been the case with Indonesian and Australian coal).

FE reported in August that NTPC had been offered around 55,000 MW of stressed thermal assets that were on sale and the company's board had appointed a sub-committee to evaluate these offers. He said on Tuesday that NTPC had also appointed audit and consulting firm KPMG to evaluate the potential acquisitions. He added that NTPC will complete the process of evaluating these assets and making potential acquisitions by March 2015.

“As far as we are concerned there is no ceiling on the quantum of purchase. We have the money. We may spend between R6,000 to R10,000 crore on the acquisitions,” Roy Choudhury said.

The company is lookingto add about 1,800 MW of power generation capacity by the end of this fiscal. NTPC incurred a capital expenditure of R21,705 crore in FY14 and has a planned capex of R22,400 crore for FY15, which will be surpassed, according to Roy Choudhury.

NTPC, which is India's largest thermal power producer, generates as much as 26% of the country's total thermal power. It has 22,414 MW of power generation capacity under construction. Some of its projects were delayed due to lack of regulatory clearances but are back on track now.

The company posted a 13% year-on-year decline in net profit at R10,975 crore in FY14, while its turnover rose 8.6% in the same period to R74,708 crore.

 

 

Source: http://www.financialexpress.com/