Oil India Ltd (OIL) chairman and managing director Ranjit Rath on Thursday said that the state-owned company plans to invest Rs 25,000 crore in renewable energy to achieve net zero emissions by 2040.
The company has decided to invest in green hydrogen, solar, geothermal energy, 2G ethanol plant, compressed biogas plants, and carbon capture utilisation and storage (CCUS), along with initiatives to eliminate flaring.
Of the Rs 25,000 crore investment, the oil major will invest Rs 8,000 crore in setting up 2G ethanol plant. The investment also includes cost for transitioning all its diesel-fired engines to gas engines.
“Our subsidiary Numaligarh Refinery (NRL) has already placed an order for replacing grey hydrogen with green hydrogen. We are targeting a 20-kilo tonne per annum capacity,” Rath said.
In alignment with the government’s plan of raising share of gas in India’s energy mix from 6.2% to 15%, the company plans to reduce gas flaring by compressing and pushing them to city gas distributors (CGD) network.
It is laying a 80-km gas pipeline from Arunachal Pradesh to Assam to bring gas to Duliajan in Assam from where the company plans to pass it into the northeast gas grid and therefore national gas grid.
OIL has entered into joint ventures to set up solar power plants. It is building a 620 mega watt (MW) solar capacity in partnership with Assam and another 150 MW solar plant in association with Himachal Pradesh.
After registering highest ever oil and gas production at 3.18 MMT and 3.18 BCM in FY23, respectively, the company has set a target of achieving 4 MMT of crude oil and 5 BCM of natural gas by fiscal 2024-25.
Rath said that the company had a capex of Rs 5,500 crore in FY23. It has planned a capex of Rs 7,500 crore on standalone basis and Rs 14,000 crore on a consolidated basis due to expansion at NRL.
OIL has 2P (50% chances) reserve base of 191 MMTOE and 51 MMTOE of oil and oil equivalent of gas respectively in domestic assets and overseas assets.
On repatriating dividends from Russian assets, Rath said that the company is evaluating legal options, discussing with banks and exploring options to buy Russian oil with the stranded dividend.
The consortium of Indian oil companies comprising Indian Oil Corp Ltd (IOCL), OIL and Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) have been exploring to repatriate dividend income estimated to be about $450 million.