Bids for a $3 bn project to clean oil spill left in Kuwait from the 1991 Gulf War.
Having decided to join the race for a $3-billion project to clean a huge oil spill in Kuwait from the 1991 Gulf War, ONGC–Teri Biotech Ltd (OTBL) has a plan to clock a top line of Rs 10,000 crore in the next three to four years.
OTBL is a joint venture between Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (ONGC) and The Energy and Resources Institute (Teri). The last day for the Kuwait contract bid was April 1. A top OTBL official declined comment, saying it might jeopardise the deal.
OTBL is talking with Indian and overseas oil companies to sell two of its main cleaning technologies — bioremediation and anti-paraffin degrading bacterial (PDB) consortium. The first technology is the one on the basis of which it has bid for the Kuwait contract. Both technologies, developed indegeniously, have been successfully tried at Mehsana, the largest onshore assest of ONGC.
The company was aiming at a top line of Rs 10,000 crore over the next three to four years, informed sources said. This would make it the largest bioremediation company in Asia engaged in the oil industry.
OTBL decided to participate in the bid after its bioremediation technology was successfully tested in a water body at Mehsana to eliminate an oil spill. The technology had caught the attention of other oil marketing companies in India, sources said.
“For long, biological systems have been used to treat human and animal wastes. The same system is becoming increasingly popular for treatment of industrial waste. Bio-remediation is an effective process in hazardous waste management to protect the environment from the adverse impact of toxic and hazardous contaminants,” said AK Gupta, executive director, ONGC.
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The company has also developed a new technology, called PDB consortium, at the Institute of Reservoir Studies (IRS) in Ahmedabad.
“This is used to prevent paraffin wax from depositing in the tubing and casing pipe of a well and choking it,” said a source. OTBL rolled out this technology on its western onshore assets a month earlier.
“This is a worldwide problem, more so where the oil is heavy and waxy, especially in countries like Venezuela,” said a source.
The company sees huge potential in using these two technologies and is aiming to showcase it in Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Oman, Syria and also Iraq, according to sources.