OIL to invest Rs 25,000 cr in clean energy to achieve net zero emissions by 2040

The company also plans to lay an 80-kilometer pipeline that will transport natural gas from deposits in Arunachal Pradesh to Assam. | Representative image: Bloomberg

3 minutes of reading Last update: Sep 14, 2024 | 21:25 IST

State-owned Oil India Ltd plans to invest Rs 25,000 crore in clean energy projects to help achieve its target of net zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2040, its chairman Ranjit Rath said on Saturday.

OIL’s plan to achieve net zero emissions includes a combination of actions to reduce gas flaring and commercialize natural gas, as well as developing renewable electricity sources, building green hydrogen power plants, and building biogas and ethanol plants.

The plans to achieve net zero emissions will go hand in hand with a goal of increasing oil and natural gas production to 9 million tonnes of oil and natural gas equivalent by 2025-26 from 6.5 million tonnes produced in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2024, he told reporters.

The company also plans to lay an 80-km pipeline to transport natural gas from deposits in Arunachal Pradesh to Assam, which is expected to help replace polluting liquid fuels in transport and industry.

“Achieving net zero emissions requires taking many actions,” he said.

He added that the company has already confirmed plans for 640 MW of solar projects in Assam and another 150 MW in Himachal Pradesh.

OIL joins other state-owned companies that are investing billions of dollars to help India as a nation achieve net zero emissions by 2070.

Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the largest US oil company, has set a target of achieving net zero emissions by 2046, while oil and gas producer ONGC has announced it will spend Rs 2 lakh crore to achieve the same goal by 2038.

Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) and gas company GAIL (India) Ltd also aim to achieve net zero carbon dioxide emissions from their operations by 2040, while Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) aims to do so by 2046.

Rath said OIL was drilling more wells and intensified exploration work to increase oil production to over 4 million tonnes and gas production to 5 billion cubic metres.

“We drilled 61 wells last year and 45 the year before. This year’s drilling plan includes more than 75 wells,” he said.

While drilling more wells will reverse the 12 percent decline in production that has occurred in mature fields, the company is also increasing exploration to target newer fields and applying technologies to increase recovery from existing fields.

About its Numaligarh refinery in Assam, Rath said the expansion of production capacity from the current 3 million tonnes per annum to 9 million tonnes at an estimated cost of Rs 28,000 crore is expected to be completed by December 2025.

(Only the headline and image of the report may have been edited by the Business Standard team; the rest of the content is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)

First published: Sep 14, 2024 | 21:25 IST