DPG wants Assam gas
Assam-based tea and timber grower DPG Group is planning to set up a 6-MW power plant that can feed electricity to a proposed steel plant that it’s also planning to construct.
Set up less than a year ago, group subsidiary DPG Energy, headed by managing director Vikram Goyal, has been in regular talks over the past three months with local Oil India and ONGC officials in Assam to source gas flared from the companies’ gasfields. “Most future (gas) production in Assam is committed to the (proposed gas cracker) Dibrugarh project,” says a source, “so DPG is asking Oil India and ONGC for the gas that it flares.
” Sadly the response from Oil India and ONGC is less than positive. “They show no enthusiasm for DPG’s idea,” adds a source.
“Nothing concrete (from the talks) has materialised. PSUs need to be goaded into doing things differently.
” In a report for the UN Clean Development Mechanism, ONGC says it reduced the percentage of gas flared in Assam from 25% in 1996 to 11% in 2006.