Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta to invest $1.5 bn across oil, zinc, steel projects

Billionaire Anil Agarwal's Vedanta Ltd on Friday said its board has approved investments worth $1.5 billion across its oil and gas, zinc and steel businesses.

The board of directors of Vedanta approved investment in three projects. These include a CAPEX investment in Cairn Oil & Gas towards infill wells, development and exploration; Gamsberg Phase-2 Project of Zinc International, the 3 MTPA growth Project of ESL Steel Limited. 

"The strategic priority for the Cairn Oil & Gas business is to increase near term volume through infill wells and add resources through exploration," explained Vedanta in an official statement. In order to achieve these goals, the board has approved capex investment (net) of $687 million. 

Of these, $360 million have been earmarked for infill wells in the prolific fields viz Mangala, Bhagyam, Aishwariya, Aishwariya Barmer Hill, Ravva, etc. "The exploration work program with capex investment of $327 million shall be spread across the OALP blocks and PSC blocks including pilot wells for Shale," it added. 

Vedanta stated that Zinc International's Gamsberg Phase-2 Project will double up Gamsberg capacity from 4Mtpa ore to 8Mtpa to produce additional 200ktpa MiC Zinc at a cost of $466 million. 

It added that the project will bring significant socio-economic benefit and will make Vedanta Zinc International as largest zinc producer of South Africa.

The 3 MTPA growth Project of ESL Steel Limited, a subsidiary of Vedanta, includes an investment of $324 million. The steel expansion project comes with "additional Blast Furnace of 1050 m3 supported by 0.5 MTPA Coke Ovens, 1.8 MTPA Pellet Plant, 800 TPD Oxygen Plant & other auxiliaries and infrastructure upgradation including Railway siding to Plant head". 

"This project also comes with a new 0.18 MTPA Ductile Iron Pipe Plant which will help us to maximize VAP. This project along with debottlenecking of BF#3, Sinter Plants & new LRF will take us to the capacity of 3 MTPA with the lowest quartile cost & premium product portfolio," noted Vedanta. 

On Friday, Vedanta stock closed 0.18 per cent lower at Rs 410.40 per share on the National Stock exchange (NSE).

Also read: Vedanta declares third interim dividend for FY22: Details here