HQ Team
April 10, 2023: Larsen and Toubro, one of the world’s top construction companies, got an order worth up to INR 25 billion ($305 million) to set up two plants in northern India.
The hydrocarbon business of the Mumbai-based company, secured the order from Chambal Fertilisers and Chemicals to set up a technical ammonium nitrate and a weak nitric acid plant in Rajasthan state.
“The orders for license, procurement, and construction,” of the plants in the Gadepan, Kota region of the state, according to a BSE filing.
The ammonium and nitric acid plants have capacities of approximately 240,000 metric tons per annum and 2,10,000 metric tons per annum respectively.
They will be built under a technology license from Casale S.A. ASALE, a privately owned Swiss company headquartered in Lugano, Switzerland.
Larsen and Turbo offer integrated design-to-build solutions across the hydrocarbon sector to domestic and international customers. Chambal fertilizers is the largest manufacturer of urea in the private sector with an installed capacity of 1.5 million tonnes per year.
Low per capita consumption
Oil and gas continue to play a pre-eminent role in meeting India’s energy requirements. About 45% of the total energy needs would be met by the oil and gas sector by 2025, though some amount of interchange between oil and gas is foreseen.
The current levels of per capita energy consumption in India are extremely low, compared to the rest of the world. The economy’s growth would automatically lead to growth in energy consumption, as there is a direct correlation between GDP and energy consumption.
The per capita consumption of primary energy and hydrocarbons reveals that India is amongst the lowest in consumption of hydrocarbon in terms of kilograms of oil equivalent, according to a government report.
India imports 82% of its oil needs and aims to bring that down to 67% by replacing it with local hydrocarbon exploration and indigenous ethanol fuel. India was the second top net crude oil importer of 205.3 metric tons in 2019.
In August 2021, crude oil production decreased by 2.3%, but there was a 20.23% increase in homegrown natural gas.
