India shopping for coal mines in Appalachia

subscribe

As Clifford Krauss pointed out last spring, the United States, in response to increasing global demand, has become a major exporter of coal for the first time in years, forcing domestic buyers to compete with others from countries like Germany and Japan.

Now it appears that India — a giant in coal production itself — is doing some window-shopping of its own in American mine towns, not just to secure exports, but to invest.

(And all this at a time when the globe is ostensibly embracing a migration away from fossil fuels and the reduction of C02 emissions.)

Following up on a tidbit published recently in IndiaÂ’s Business Standard, our New Delhi bureau chief, Somini Sengupta, confirms that Santosh Bagrodia, IndiaÂ’s coal minister, and Partha Sarathi Bhattacharya, the chairman of Coal India, were on a shopping trip in the Appalachians.

Ms. Sengupta wrote in an e-mail dispatch:

State-owned Coal India Ltd., part of a five-company consortium, is searching for coal mines in the United States, Canada, Australia and Indonesia to satisfy IndiaÂ’s sharply rising demand for coal to feed its power plants.

India already imports 50 million tons of coal every year, and its demand is projected to grow. Indian officials say buying coal mines is a better way to secure supply and at potentially better prices. ‘If we want to make foreign coal available in the country it should be through acquisitions,’ said Mr. Bhattacharya, chairman of Coal India, who accompanied the Indian Coal Minister on the trip to the United States to explore private financing for the projects.

Mr. Bhattacharya said he was prepared to invest more than $4 billion from his company for the acquisitions, which are still in their nascent stages. He said he was encouraged by falling prices of mines in the United States.

As a percentage of total production, foreign direct investment in coal production in the United States dropped precipitously in 2004, from 21 percent to 14 percent, when RAG (Germany), RWE (Germany), and Itochu (Japan) sold their interests, according to data released earlier this year by the Energy Information Administration.

The largest remaining foreign companies active in coal production in the United States, according to the E.I.A., are Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton (Australia) and Scottish Power.

Coal India, the largest producer in India, began signaling its interest in investing in foreign energy sources as far back as June.

“Of course, it’s a buyers market,” the Indian Coal Minister, Santosh Bagrodia, told Ms. Sengupti. “Money is not a problem.”

Related News

IAEA simulator

IAEA reactor simulators get more use during Covid-19 lockdown

PARIS - Students and professionals in the nuclear field are making use of learning opportunities during lockdown made necessary by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Requests to use the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA’s) basic principle nuclear reactor simulators have risen sharply in recent weeks, IAEA said on 1 May. New users will have the opportunity to learn more about operating them.

“This suite of nuclear power plant simulators is part of the IAEA education and training programmes on technology development of advanced reactors. [It] can be accessed upon request by interested parties from around the world,” said Stefano Monti, head of the IAEA’s…

READ MORE
usa grid

Coronavirus and the U.S. grid: What to know

READ MORE

power lines

Energy prices trigger EU inflation, poor worst hit

READ MORE

turkey solar panel

Covid-19 puts brake on Turkey’s solar sector

READ MORE

calgary deep freeze

Alberta sets new electricity usage record during deep freeze

READ MORE