NEW DELHI: Indian Oil (IOC) will invest Rs 5,463 crore in setting up city gas distribution networks for retailing CNG for automobiles and piped cooking gas to households in seven districts.
“IOC has won the bidding for implementation of City Gas Distribution (CGD) for seven geographical areas. The board has approved the estimated total capital investment of Rs 5,463 crore on the implementation of the CGD projects. The investment in CGD business will help IOC expand and consolidate its gas business,” the company said.
The seven districts are Coimbatore, Salem, Bokaro, Rewa, Aurangabad, Guna, and Jagtial. IOC, however, did not specify the investments to be made in the nine cities it had won in the joint venture with Adani Gas.
On September 17, Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) had announced the final list of winners of city gas retailing licences in a bid to bring gas coverage to 29 per cent of the country’s area and 24 per cent of the population.
Adani Gas had emerged the biggest winner of the auction by bagging the right to retail CNG in 13 cities on its own and in another nine in a JV with IOC. Besides IOC, the other prominent winners were Bharat Gas Resources and Torrent Gas.
IOC’s board on Thursday also approved a Rs 520 crore investment for production of ethanol using LanzaTech (USA) gas fermentation technology at its Panipat refinery in Haryana. The proposed ethanol plant is designed to produce 33.5 KTPA anhydrous ethanol for use in automotive fuel, conforming to BIS and will be suitable for blending with BS-VI MS.
The board also approved a Rs 1,332 crore investment in laying a pipeline from Paradip in Odisha to Haldia in West Bengal. The Paradip-Somnathpur-Haldia pipeline “would enable placement of products from Paradip Refinery, Odisha to Somnathpur, Odisha for meeting the local demand as well as to Haldia, West Bengal for onward movement through other pipelines,” the company said.