IOC plans 26% stake in nuclear power venture with NPCIL

Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the country’s biggest oil marketing company, will pick up 26 per cent equity in the atomic power project the company has decided to set up with Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL).

“Our overall partnership will be 26 per cent. The discussion on location is going on. There are certain sites which they have studied for their plants. Nuclear power offers a guaranteed return and enough opportunity for all of us. This will enable us to enter new vistas of the energy business,” Sarthak Behuria, chairman of IOC told Business Standard.

IOC signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with NPCIL to set up a 1,000-Mw nuclear power plant. The company is likely to invest about Rs 1,000 crore in the project. Nuclear power is estimated to offer about 15 per cent assured return on investment, unlike the volatility in the company’s refining business.

NPCIL is implementing various long-term projects which are at different stages of implementation and IOC is keen to be a partner in one of the approved projects which is at an initial stage. NPCIL is mandated to have at least 51 per cent stake in every nuclear-fuel project it undertakes.

“Earlier, our vision was to be in upstream and downstream but then we felt that we have not done much in other forms of energy. Now we want to make a foray beyond downstream and upstream into the new vistas of energy,” Behuria added.

IOC has already forayed into wind energy and commissioned a 21-Mw wind power project in Kutch district of Gujarat for Rs 130 crore. It has also commissioned two pilot solar lantern charging stations at its Kisan Seva Kendras at Sathla near Meerut and Chokoni near Bareilly. “We see a lot of potential for nuclear power. In future, if the government allows, we can think of going alone into nuclear power,” B M Bansal, director (business development) said recently.

NPCIL is targeting 30,000 Mw of power through nuclear plants by 2020, up manifold from the 4,120 Mw now. NPCIL also has a joint venture with the National Thermal Power Corporation for generating nuclear power.