Jindal Hunting Energy To Start Commercial Production By December
The joint venture launched its Rs 150 crore manufacturing facility in Nashik on Monday.
Jindal Hunting Energy Services Pvt., a joint venture between Jindal Saw Ltd. and U.S. technology major Hunting Energy Services Pte., plans to start commercial production of patented connectors for pipes and tubes used by upstream oil and gas companies by December.
On Monday, the joint venture launched its Rs 150 crore manufacturing facility in Nashik with the aim of replacing the entire $200 million worth of imported oil-country tubular goods.
OCTG refers to the casing, tubing, piping, and pipelines used in the petroleum industry. These tubular products are the foundation of oil and gas well design and pipeline design and provide passage for the safe and efficient transport of oil and gas products to the market.
Hunting Energy provides patented software technology that is embedded in machines to achieve threading and connecting pipes used in drilling shallow and deep oil wells.
With the 77,000 metric tonne threading capacity, this manufacturing plant can meet the entire domestic demand, especially of Oil and Natural Gas Corp., Oil India Ltd., and Vedanta Ltd.'s Cairn Oil and Gas. Neeraj Kumar, chief executive officer of Jindal Saw, told BQ Prime.
"There is also potential to export to countries in the Middle East and Africa, given we are the only facility to produce these products in the entire region," he said.
The company is doing trial production of threading products at present and plans to start commercial production by December this year. "Depending on demand and orders, we will scale the utilisation to peak capacity by the calendar year 2025," Kumar said.
The newly launched facility has a fully integrated supply chain. It is built next to Jindal Saw's pipe mill and has easy access to the Mumbai port.
The strength and durability of pipes are of prime importance, as failure is a costly proposition if it happens 6,000–7,000 metres underground, from where it cannot be replaced, said Vikas Jhunthra, president, Jindal Hunting Energy Services.
Till now, Indian upstream oil and gas companies had been importing these products, but now it can be met from this plant, he said.
"We can provide premium OCTG not only to the rapidly growing domestic market in India but also serve as an important gateway to the Middle East and Africa markets," said Daniel Tan, managing director of Hunting Asia Pacific.
The manufacturing hub will prove to be a one-stop shop for premium OCTG and accessories for both domestic and international customers, he said.
