The state-owned Engineers India Ltd (EIL) last week secured a major overseas project from Nigerian refiner and petrochemical leader Dangote Group, with revenue potential estimated in the “hundreds of millions of dollars.” The contract includes expanding Africa’s largest oil refinery (to 1.4 million barrels per day) and developing a 12-million-tonne petrochemical complex that will make the facility the world’s largest urea producer.
Chairperson and Managing Director Vartika Shukla tells Benn Kochuveedan that while EIL remains the default choice in the domestic oil and gas space for engineering consultancy and project execution, the company now aims to nearly double its overseas revenue contribution to 20% from the current 12% by next fiscal year.
What is the significance of this large order from the Dangote Group from both revenue and project execution perspectives?
This order from the Dangote Group is the largest overseas contract we have secured to date. The contractual value for the petrochemical project in Nigeria is around $70 million. We will design and execute a 12-million-tonne per annum plant, expanding the current 3-million-tonne capacity. Once completed, this will become the world’s largest urea plant with an annual output of 7 million tonnes.
The commercial details of the refinery expansion are still being finalised, but we are confident the associated revenue will run into hundreds of millions of dollars. The project involves expanding the existing 650,000 bpd refinery, which we designed and built between 2018 and 2024, to a 1.4 million bpd facility—the largest refinery in Africa. Both projects are scheduled to be executed over the next three years.
This repeat order is a strong affirmation of the trust reposed in EIL’s ability to deliver complex, large-scale projects. It reflects that very few companies globally can match our engineering and execution capabilities at this scale.
What is your current order book, and how much of it is from international markets?
Our current order book stands at around ₹13,200 crore, the highest ever for us. Of this, 25% comprises international orders—up from under 10% a few years ago. With these recent Dangote contracts, we expect overseas business to contribute 20% of our revenue by next fiscal year, compared with around 12% currently.
Could you outline the geographical spread of your international business?
We are largely present in the Middle East and Africa. We have four overseas offices now. The first overseas office is in Nigeria, since 2017 and the second is in Abu Dhabi where we have deployed about 170 people. We largely work for Adnoc (Abu Dhabi National Oil Company) and we are the tier 1 consultant for them now. Last year, we were upgraded to be top-notch consultants for Adnoc. We mainly do engineering activities in Abu Dhabi.
Recently we opened our office in Saudi Arabia as well after we won a large order from Saudi Aramco.
Our fourth offshore office is in Guyana where we are doing the project management consultancy for a power plant and a small fertilizer unit both will be gas-fired. Guyana is an important destination when it comes to oil and natural gas after the recent massive discoveries.
We haven't focused on many countries and I think our focus will remain limited to these markets for the foreseeable future. Because if you spread yourself too thin, it is very difficult to make sure that the client is happy.
We may have some breakthrough in Indonesia also where there is a very unique opportunity for sustainable aviation fuel. We are also looking at other opportunities in sustainable aviation fuel globally. Because we see a lot of global movement towards ethanol-blended jet fuel.
What is the status of the mega Maharashtra refinery planned on the west coast?
As of now, we have no updates. We are not aware of the progress made on the project. The last communication we had with RRPCL (Ratnagiri Refinery & Petrochemicals Ltd) was about 18 months ago. Currently, there is no active engagement from EIL on that project.
