Page 156 - CW E-Magazine (17-9-2024)

Hydrocarbons

DIFFERING VIEWS
NCLT admits insolvency resolution plea against

Essar Oil and Gas Exploration & Production

The bankruptcy court in Ahmedabad Before the tribunal’s order, Vishal “The settlement agreement did not
has admitted Essar Group entity Essar Raval, counsel for Greka Green Solu- provide for any claim of interest on the
Oil and Gas Exploration & Production tions argued that the company had principal amount due and payable and
Ltd. under the corporate insolvency agreed with Essar Oil and Gas Explo- an unimaginable claim of $1.73 mil-
resolution process (CIRP). ration & Production to provide certain lion has been made towards the interest
turnkey services by contract to enable as it ignores the settlement agreement
The National Company Law Tri- the Essar Group entity to undertake a which was unilaterally terminated by
bunal (NCLT) admitted the company contract with the Government of India. the applicant and hence, the application
following an application fi led by the is barred by the limitation,” argued the
company’s operational creditor Greka The operational creditor also counsel for the Essar Group entity.
Green Solutions (India) Ltd., after the argued through its advocate that both
Essar Group entity defaulted on its parties reached a settlement agreement However, admitting the company
dues of about Rs. 24.38-crore. twice. under the resolution process, the tribu-
nal observed that there was no dispute
“Essar would like to inform that However, countering this, Essar on the contract executed and that the
the matter is currently sub-judice as we Oil and Gas Exploration & Produc- applicant had been waiting for a long
have appealed the matter to the higher tion, through its counsel, denied the time to realise his amount, had com-
court. We would like to highlight that the debt due and payable under Section 9 promised and rescheduled his debt and
case was settled and all payments were of the IBC, arguing that it was not an hence deserved to proceed against the
cleared and currently there is no pending operational debt and hence not main- respondent (Essar Oil and Gas Explo-
claim,” an Essar Group spokesperson said. tainable. ration & Production).

REDUCING EMISSIONS
Govt. looks to shift a third of trucks to LNG in 5-7 years

The Government wants liquefi ed ensured “by allocating 0.5-million fl eet owners for conversion of diesel
natural gas (LNG) to power a third metric standard cubic meters a day trucks to LNG fuel trucks”. The oil
of the country’s long-haul heavy-duty (mmscmd) of domestic natural gas ministry may also consider develop-
vehicles (HDV) fl eet in 5-7 years and produced from new well or well inter- ing the Delhi-Mumbai expressway as
is considering allocating domestic vention for an initial period of three a pilot LNG highway and request the
gas for the purpose, according to an years,” it said. ministry of road transport and high-
oil ministry proposal. ways to exempt LNG-powered HDVs
The volume of 0.5-mmscmd of from toll tax on that route. “This, in
“Ministry of petroleum and natural gas should be suffi cient for 50,000 turn, shall reduce the operating cost
gas can play a vital and leading role trucks over the next 2-3 years, it said. of LNG HDVs and propel faster
in provisioning for the availability The draft has also proposed setting adoption,” the ministry said.
of LNG at stable/predictable prices; up small-scale liquefaction plants in
availability of suffi cient HDVs/trucks; off-grid areas to convert biogas into LNG has a 24% lower emission
and availability of suffi cient LNG bio-LNG for use in transport. factor than diesel. Medium and HCVs
dispensing stations,” the ministry consume 40% of all diesel in the
said in the draft scheme for promo- The ministry has mandated state- country. As of March 31, 2020, there
tion of LNG in transport. run oil companies to set up 49 LNG were about 5.8-million trucks and
dispensing stations. It may advise “oil lorries and 1.6-million multi-axle arti-
Predictable LNG prices can be marketing companies to incentivise culated vehicles registered in India.

156 Chemical Weekly September 17, 2024

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