ENGINEERS INDIA EYES STAKES IN REFINERIES

NEW DELHI, Feb 07, 2011 (AsiaPulse via COMTEX) --

State-run Engineers India Ltd (EIL, BSE:532178) may acquire equity stakes in the refinery and petrochemical projects where it is likely to provide engineering and construction consultancy, its chairman and managing director A.K Purwaha said Friday.

"We will be looking at acquiring equity in projects for which we will be providing consultancy," Purwaha told reporters here.

EIL, an engineering consultancy company and engineering, procurement, construction (EPC) contractor, has provided services to almost all of the refineries, petrochemical plants, oil and gas processing projects, pipeline, offshore platforms.

It is currently executing the 9-million tonnes Bhatinda refinery project for the joint venture of Hindustan Petroleum Corp (BSE:500104) and Mittal Energy, and 6 million tonnes Bina refinery for a unit of Bharat PetroleumCorp (BPCL, BSE:500547).

"EIL is looking at diversification into water and waste management, citygas distribution, thermal and nuclear power, gas-based fertiliser projects, coal-to-liquid projects and steel plants," Purwaha said.

The company would like to pick up stake in any project for distribution of CNG to automobiles and piped cooking gas to households (called city gas distribution) where it is providing project management consultancy (PMC), he said.

"We have signed a MoU with Gujarat State Petroleum Corp (GPSC)...we are likely to be bidding jointly in some of the cities," he said.

EIL has also signed a MoU with Nuclear Power Corp of India (NPCIL) for design, engineering and project management consultancy for execution of nuclear projects.

It is also working with Wipro Technologies to develop energy efficient and management products.

The company is targeting a US$1-billion order book this fiscal year. EIL bagged orders worth Rs 3,800 crore (over US$800 million) in the in the first nine months of the fiscal year year year, EIL director (finance) Ram Singh said.

As on December 31, the state-run company had a total order book of Rs 8,100 crore, three times its annual turnover.

EIL saw its net profit rise 10.25 per cent to Rs 122.45 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2010.

Total income of the public sector enterprise increased to Rs 709.80 crore for the quarter under review from Rs 536.27 crore for the same period previous fiscal.

For the nine-month period ended December 31, 2010, net profit rose to Rs 358.95 crore from Rs 310.85 crore in the same period previous year.

Net income rose to Rs 1,676.74 crore in the nine-month period under review from Rs 1,353.46 crore during the same period last fiscal year.

Source: ENGINEERS INDIA EYES STAKES IN REFINERIES | TradingMarkets.com

Ramesh, Jaiswal meet; GoM will now take up contentious no-go issue

NEW DELHI: A second round of meeting between the Union environment and coal ministers on Friday yielded some results though the contentious no-go zoning plan remained unresolved. It will now be taken to the meeting of the group of ministers headed by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee.

Environment minister Jairam Ramesh offered to call a meeting of the senior forest officials from Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Maharashtra to expedite forest clearances at the state level.

Also, in an attempt to ease the process he offered to amend the compensatory afforestation rules and allow coal miners to plant trees on degraded forest lands instead of going on a wild hunt for difficult to find new government land.

The coal ministry, headed by Sriprakash Jaiswal, submitted a list of 15 projects that are awaiting final environmental clearance out of which it was pointed out four were awaiting clarifications from the coal companies.

The mismanagement at the coal company's end was also highlighted between the two. One project where actual production is far less than the permitted levels, it was noted, has asked for expansion. Three coal mines where illegal extraction has been carried out in excess of clearance have asked for regularisation.

The coal ministry had also demanded that the moratorium put on mining in seven coal blocks due to high levels of industrial pollution be withdrawn. Ramesh has committed to send expert teams to the seven sites to assess improvements if any.

Ramesh also noted that only two of the 55 coal projects awaiting forest clearance were with the Centre, the rest being stuck at the state level for various reasons.

After the meeting though Sriprakash Jaiswal initially told media that the no-go policy had been withdrawn, he soon retracted to align himself with Ramesh in stating that it had not been discussed and would be taken up later at the GoM.

Read more: Ramesh, Jaiswal meet; GoM will now take up contentious no-go issue - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Ramesh-Jaiswal-meet-GoM-will-now-take-up-contentious-no-go-issue/articleshow/7470135.cms#ixzz1Dd5oykDn