Tata Sasol CTL Project

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Economic/Social Impact of the Project The project involves setting up a captive opencast coal mine in Talcher Coalfield for the coal to liquid or CTL project in Orissa. The captive coal block was allocated for the project by MoC on 27.2.2009 after an elaborate process in which an Inter-Ministerial Group created for the purpose selected two companies including Strategic Energy Technology Systems Private Ltd or SETSPL for 2 CTL projects from amongst 22 companies which applied for the same in 2008. The CTL technology for this project is being provided by Sasol, who have the required proven technology and are also operating two commercial scale CTL plants in South Africa with a total capacity of 1,60,000 barrels per day. The project is of strategic importance to the country as it aims to enhance the fuel security of the country by producing high quality petroleum products from high ash coal and thus reducing the dependence of the country on costly crude oil imports. The project involves setting up a 30 mtpa opencast coal mine for the CTL plant having a capacity of 80,000 barrels per day and a captive power plant with a capacity of 1100 MW. Besides increasing the fuel security of the country, the project will help in economic development of Orissa by generating over 35,000 direct and indirect employment and creating capacity in other downstream industries related to chemical and fertilizer industry. The project has received the single window clearance from High Level Empowered Committee of the State Government. The site for the CTL project has been identified in Odisha after an elaborate process followed by Engineers India Ltd who were engaged for the purpose by SETSPL. Finalization of detailed configuration of the CTL plant and its product slate depends on the detailed understanding of the coal properties for CTL end use and this can be done only after the PL deed is executed. SETSPL will have to drill large diameter boreholes to determine the detailed coal properties required for CTL end use in not only the unexplored area of the coal block but in also the already explored area by CMPDIL. The drilling done by CMPDIL has given confidence about the quantity of coal but not is detailed quality as required for CTL end use. All subsequent milestones like Forest Clearance, Environment Clearance and ML depend on PL deed and hence PL execution order from State Government is extremely important for further development of the coal block. The financing for the project could be from SBI or IFC and this will be decided after detailed determination of coal properties for CTL end use.