New Delhi: A JV Agreement was signed by Mr. Kausik Basu, ED (M&I), IOCL, and Mr. V. V. Sivakumar, GM, NGEL in the presence of Mr. Gurdeep Singh, CMD, NTPC Limited, and Mr. Shrikant Madhav Vaidya, Chairman, IOCL.
Energy has always been on the centre stage all over the world. With the Russian war, it has been brought in sharp focus. Happenings especially in Europe has been quite confounding. Despite being very strong in alternate energy generation the winter requirements however saw them crying hoarse for fossil fuels. In fact some countries even reopened moth balled thermal electric generation plants. Common people need to understand conventional fuels for short term cannot be wished away.
In light of this this development this particular agreement of NTPC with IOCL one will have to see how fruitful it will be. Why we have a contrary feeling than the usual brauhaha is for following :
1-NTPC is trying to generate power for refinery while all refineries normally generate there own power. Instead of generating power for the refineries it would have been ideal if it had gone for actually substituting fossil fuels the major product of any refinery.
2-It is seen that most of such deals are amongst public sectors themselves. This leads to a sort of in breeding which is never good for the progeny. Why NTPC did not have a similar MOU with private refiners ? After all, the world’s biggest refinery is in India. There is plenty of scope for PPP (Public Private Partnership).
3-It is seen that the whole world is going for replacing fossils, where does that leave such an agreement ? Is it really viable in the long run or merely sunken cost ? Should NTPC not look at wider horizons ?
It has been seen in past also that such agreements are made but no one tends to follow up the outcomes in real time, no cost benefit analysis is done, not audits done. It’s a good idea to make refineries less polluting but the bigger challenge is to tackle greater instruments of pollution since Refineries claim they are not as polluting as they are made out to be. The Mathura Refinery and Taj who are in close proximity is a shining example. So are we barking up a wrong tree.
It has been better if the power generation for cities, rural areas and bordering states was taken up by NTPC on a war footing. NTPC has the capacity to do Mega Projects and should not waste it’s potential on plucking low hanging fruits. Such agreements should be more in passing and not centre stage as the Power sector seems to be suggesting. After all Bharat is also part of India !
Afterthought
Has the agreement been signed to make IOCL Refineries more lucrative for Sale once the Mandated Privatization process is initiated?