The Hindu Business Line : Punj Lloyd eyes EPC space in nuclear power plants

The company has also decided to foray into onshore drilling rigs business for oil and gas companies in India and abroad as part of its diversification drive.

CHARTING PLANS: Mr Atul Punj, Chairman of Punj Lloyd, addressing a press conference in the Capital on Friday. — Kamal Narang

New Delhi June 1 Engineering and construction firm Punj Lloyd Ltd is engaged in talks with global nuclear power equipment and technology companies to offer engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) services for setting up nuclear power plants in the country.

"Nuclear energy is one area which we are keenly looking at... We are in talks with global players for alliances," the PLL Chairman, Mr Atul Punj, said here. He said that the company was in talks with major global nuclear suppliers such as General Electric and Westinghouse. "There are just a handful of players in this space... We are talking to just about all of them," he said, adding the company was expecting to forge an alliance in the coming months.

Diversification Drive

The company has also decided to foray into onshore drilling rigs business for oil and gas companies in India and abroad as part of its diversification drive and is investing Rs 40 crore in the first phase this fiscal, Mr Punj said here.

The company's board has approved setting up a subsidiary Punj Lloyd Upstream Ltd for getting into drilling rigs business, he said. "We will be buying onshore drilling rigs to start with and later expand into offshore rigs. We will be giving these rigs on hire or lease to oil and gas companies such as ONGC and RIL in India and even other firms overseas," he added.

The country will need more oil rigs as it plans to auction around 80 oil and gas blocks in the seventh round of licensing that is expected to be launched in August.

Capital Expenditure

The company, which has a cumulative order book of about Rs 16,000 crore, plans to spend about Rs 500 crore as capital expenditure this fiscal to augment capacities. Another Rs 400-500 crore would be raised as debt for working capital to fund the orders it is executing over the next 24 to 30 months in India and abroad, Mr Punj said.

The capital expenditure will be utilised in augmenting the company's construction equipment for building new oil and gas pipelines and strengthening offshore capabilities, Mr Punj said. Most of the capital will be funded through internal accruals, he added.

Punj Lloyd plans to bid for larger size contracts in the range of $500 million to $600 million, compared with average contracts of $100 million that it has in hand currently, he said.

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