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ONGC inks oil & gas exploration pact with Japanese giant Mitsui

The memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed here ‘provides for cooperation in
exploration and production for conventional and unconventional petroleum and natural gas opportunities in India and in third countries,’ a company statement said here.

Corporation and Mitsui had signed an MoU for cooperation in gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) business in August 2012. Later in March 2013, Mitsui had entered into another MoU with ONGC, Bharat Petroleum Corp and New Mangalore Port Trust to explore setting up a 5 million ton LNG import terminal at Mangalore in Karnataka.

ONGC and Mitsui are also partners in a giant Mozambique gas field, where the Indian explorer's overseas arm, ONGC Videsh Ltd, has picked up a 16 per cent stake for about $4.3 billion. Mitsui is the second-biggest stakeholder in the Rovuma-1 field in the waters off the African nation with a 20 per cent interest. The field holds 35 to 65 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves which are planned to be converted into liquid gas (LNG) for export to nations such as India.

First gas from the fields, where state-owned Oil India Ltd has a 4 per cent interest and a unit of Bharat Petroleum another 10 per cent, is planned for 2018.

ONGC is hoping that together with Mitsui, the share of gas that can come to India will rise to 50 per cent of the 34 million tons per annum of LNG production planned from the fields.

This LNG can be brought to the planned Mangalore terminal. US energy firm Anadarko Petroleum is the operator of Area-1 with a 26.5 per cent stake, Thai state oil company PTT Exploration and Production PCL has 8.5 per cent and Mozambique's state-owned ENH 15 per cent. Mitsui is a diversified trading, investment and service enterprise with 151 offices in 67 countries. Its business ranges from iron and steel products, mining and metals to chemicals, energy and food resources.

$430-mn JBIC loan to power two NTPC projects

NEW DELHI:
Country’s largest power producer NTPC has tied up $430 million (nearly Rs 2,700 crore) funding from Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) for two projects.The funds would be utilised for Kudgi and Auraiya power projects.

NTPC would get a term loan of $350 million to finance the supplies and services from Japan as well as India for the Kudgi Super Thermal Power Project Stage-I (3x800 MW). It is located in Karnataka. ‘The facility consists of a CIRR (commercial interest reference rate) based fixed interest tranche and a floating interest rate tranche, with a door to door maturity of about 15 years,’ the company said in a statement on Monday. Another loan of about $80 million would be utilised to finance the renovation and modernisation of gas turbines at 652 MW Auraiya gas power station in Uttar Pradesh.This facility is a CIRR based fixed interest rate facility with a door to door maturity of over 12 years. ‘In both the loans, 60 per cent of the facility amount is provided by JBIC and the balance by commercial banks under NEXI (Nippon Export and Investment Insurance) guarantee. ‘The loans are provided on a stand alone basis without any sovereign guarantee reflecting the NTPC’s strong credit quality,’ the statement said. This is the first time JBIC is directly extending loan facility to NTPC. Earlier, the entity had extended guarantee for an untied loan of $380 million for the company’s Barh Stage-I project. The agreements were inked by NTPC Director (Finance) Kulamani Biswal and JBIC Governor Hiroshi Watanabe. NTPC has an installed capacity of 42,454 MW.
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