Key News

L&T bags largest ever export order for Reactors

Larsen & Toubro Ltd (L&T) has announced that Larsen & Toubro's (L&T) Heavy Engineering Division has been awarded an order to manufacture and supply 22 Hydrocracker & Atmospheric Residue Desulphurisation (ARDS) Reactors for Kuwait National Petroleum Company's prestigious "Clean Fuel Project 2020".

The total value of the order is KWD 117.89 mn, equivalent to USD 421 mn (Rs 1695 cr). This is the largest ever order placed with any single manufacturer in the world for such critical reactors. The order has been won against stiff international competition from Japanese and Italian reactor manufacturers.

These reactors will be manufactured from advanced technology steels containing Chromium, Molybdenum and Vanadium, with thickness up to 300 mm and weights up to 1450 MT.

The reactors for the Clean Fuel Project 2020 have to conform to Chevron process design and specifications. L&T's Heavy Engineering Division is amongst a select group of Companies qualified for manufacture of such critical equipment.

L&T will manufacture these critical reactors in its state-of-the-art facilities at Hazira Works which is one of the biggest integrated manufacturing complexes situated on a water front with easy access to the sea. These reactors are required to be delivered to the refinery in Kuwait by the third quarter of financial year 2010-11.

Jet Airways interested in bmi majority stake

India's Jet Airways, the country's top private carrier, has approached unlisted British airline bmi majority shareholder and chairman Sir Michael Bishop about the sale of his stake, the Sunday Telegraph reported.

Jet expressed its interest before Christmas in conjunction with a Middle-Eastern airline, believed to be Emirates, the report said, without naming its source.

The approach to Bishop, who owns 50 percent plus one share in the private company part-owned by Lufthansa and SAS, was made through a third party and no formal meetings have taken place, the article said.

Both Virgin and British Airways have previously expressed an interest in buying the stake, the paper said.

Reliance sees hydrocarbon prospects in KG Basin block

Sensing hydrocarbon prospects in a fresh deepwater block in the Krishna-Godavari (KG) Basin, off the east coast, Reliance Industries Ltd plans to start testing for possible oil and gas presence there.

Industry sources said that as the block KG-DWN-2003/1 (KG-V D3) was nearly adjacent to RIL’s prolific D6 block, the company may see good hydrocarbon prospects in it.

“The company plans to start testing for hydrocarbon prospects very soon,” sources said. If the company finds hydrocarbons, then this would be its third deepwater block in KG Basin where it has struck success, sources said.

Hardy Exploration & Production (India) holds a 10 per cent participating interest while RIL is the operator, with 90 per cent interest in the block. RIL, along with Hardy, won the block in the fifth round of New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP). The block is in exploration phase one, which provides for the drilling of six exploration wells.

Technical testing

RIL has deployed rig C. Kirk Rhein at the block. The company started drilling the first well on December 29 and plans to start modular dynamic testing (MDT). The block size is 3,288 sq km. Technical testing is done only when there are signs of hydrocarbons in the well, industry sources said adding that no company would spend millions of dollars if there was no prospect. The MDT can be undertaken while drilling is on and can be completed in a short span.

However, company sources remained tight-lipped about the whole development. After D4 and D6 deepwater blocks, the company recently announced more discoveries in exploratory shallow-water block KG-OSN-2001/1 (KG-III-5), awarded under NELP III.

RIL, which currently has six drilling rigs, has deployed them in its KG and Mahanadi assets. Three rigs have been deployed in D6 to maintain the schedule of flowing gas from the block, while one each have been deployed in KG-V D3, NEC-25, and KG-III-5, sources said.