SCI ventures offshore

State-owned Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) is finally making an entry into the offshore segment in the next three months, something which has been on the cards for the past three years.

The company has created an in-house team to prepare a study on the offshore sector and exploration & production scenario and the vessel requirements. The one-month study is expected to be completed in the next two weeks and, based on the viability study, the company will go forward with its projects. Once the study report is done, ?in principle? approvals would be sought from the board and tenders would be sent out for various vessel requirements.

Umesh C Grover, director of the technical and offshore services, SCI, said: “Three months after the study, we will roll out our first set of vessel orders and the projects should keep falling in place subsequently. We can simultaneously work on 2-3 projects, there?s nothing stopping us.”

SCI is confident of the project and open for any kind of fund requirements that the study might call for. “I am prepared to approach the government for an increase in outlay, am prepared to modify any of the current projects to accommodate the offshore one. Our aim would be to go as early as possible and the projects should be viable,” Grover added. SCI has a budget outlay of more than Rs 2,000 crore for FY08-09 compared with Rs 1,838 crore last year.

Almost three years ago, SCI had made public its intention to enter the offshore sector through a joint venture with Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC). However, the joint venture has not, to date, made much progress and in the last six months the company has been exploring the option of going it alone to enter the offshore sector.