CIL plans to buy overseas coal assets within a year

Scouting for coal assets abroad for acquisition, state-run Coal India (CIL) is likely to strike a deal within a year through its overseas arm.

"We are looking for acquisition of coal assets abroad. I hope to acquire one within a year or so," Minister of State for Coal Santosh Bagrodia said here last evening.

Bagrodia had recently visited the US to talk to a host of coal miners, but nothing concrete could shape up so far.

However, a CIL source said that Coal Videsh is close to an acquisition in Indonesia, which has large deposits of the fossil fuel. It is also looking for assets in other coal-rich geographies like Mozambique, Australia and South Africa.

Bagrodia, who was here to take part in the 33rd foundation day celebration ceremony of the newly-conferred navratna company, asked CIL Chairman Partha S Bhattacharyya to step up company's production by 20 per cent year-on-year in three years time from now.

CIL had produced 379.49 million tonnes of coal last fiscal and has set a target for itself of producing 405 million tonnes in the current fiscal.

The target of achieving 20 per cent growth in production would be a daunting task for the company since the present growth rate is hovering around five per cent year-on-year. This calls for acquiring coal assets overseas.

During the current five-year plan ending 2012, CIL has set a target of producing 520.5 million tonnes of coal, up from Rs 361 million tonnes in 2006-07. This would require around 7.6 per cent year-on-year growth from the level of 2006-07.