Coal & Oil to invest Rs 200 cr

Investment to include acquisition of a captive coal field in Indonesia in the next six months

The upbeat forecasts about India's economic potential has brought in its wake more investments from Coal and Oil Company (C&O), a firm that draws revenue from the demands of India's energy sector.

C&O is promoted by non-resident Indians and provides "end-to-end solution" in energy. Company's president and CEO Ahmed A R Buhari explained that it included procurement, financing and provision of logistics largely for coal for power plants.

The next step is an investment of Rs 200 crore over the next year to create infrastructure to meet the growing demand for coal.

The investment would include the acquisition of a captive coal field in Indonesia in the next six months. The capacity of the field would be about a million tonnes in the first year, said Buhari.

Another acquisition on the company's agenda would be of a ship to move the coal. Research indicated that India's coal deficit is expected to increase to 160 million tonnes by 2010 from the current deficit of 23 million tonnes, he said.

C&O has set itself the aim of being an integrated player in the energy space, which would include fuel other than coal. However, coal would be the dominant factor in the company's operations, said Buhari.

C&O's aim of being an integrated player includes an entry into power generation. Ahmed said the company hoped to be generating power in the next two to three years.

C&O's share of business in India's coal imports is 30 per cent. The company's clients in India are a combination of private sector companies which have captive power plants and state electricity boards. The company's turnover is about Rs 1,300 crore.