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India’s NTPC on the hunt for overseas coal

India’s largest power producer NTPC Limited will sign long-term coal supply agreements for at least 17-million tonnes a year for next five to six years.
The government-owned- and managed power producer was already in talks with several coal asset owners across the world seeking thermal coal supplies with energy content ranging between 4 200 and 6 000 gross calorific value with the option of picking up equity stakes in the assets in order to establish long-term supply security, a company official said.
The target was to sign up contracts for a minimum 17-million tonnes of thermal coal that would be required for blending with domestic coal for feedstock for NTPC’s power plants across the country, he said.
Along with negotiating imported coal supplies, the power producer would also initiate talks with imported coal suppliers with coal assets overseas and conduct due diligence on the possibilities of investing in the assets with NTPC willing to pick up equity stakes of up to 26% in the coal assets, he added.
NTPC had issued a notice seeking expressions of interest from overseas coal suppliers and coal asset owners for supply agreements, to be followed up with exploring investment opportunities, subject to the satisfactory shipments and quality of coal supplied.
Meanwhile, in a related development, the federal government has directed the Coal Controller of India to investigate NTPC’s delay in commencing mining operations from a coal block allocated to the company in the eastern Indian province of Jharkhand, almost a decade ago.
The controller has been asked to submit a report to the Coal Ministry on why NTPC had not extracted any coal from the Pakri Barwadih coal block allocated to it with an estimated coal reserve of 1.6-billion tonnes.
NTPC, with an installed capacity of 40 000 MW, requires around 164-million tonnes a year of coal of which 80% was supplied by Coal India Limited.
Source: Mining Weekly