Indian Ambassador to Qatar P Kumaran (second left); G Venu (second right), Executive Director (Engg.) at NTPC; President of IBPC K M Varghese (left); and Sumit Malhotra, General Secretary of IBPC, at the seminar at Crowne Plaza Hotel-Doha yesterday.
DOHA: Qatar and India are likely to expand and deepen cooperation in new areas, especially in the field of energy and power sector. Leading companies from both sides are working closely to form joint ventures (JVs) to establish power plants in Qatar, India and other promising markets, said a senior official of National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), an Indian public sector undertaking.
Both sides are also discussing ways to establish cooperation for sharing knowledge, expertise and other specialised services in the field of electricity and power plant management in Qatar and elsewhere.
NTPC, a Government of India Enterprise, is engaged in the business of generation of electricity and allied activities, with an installed capacity of generating electric power of nearly 54,000MW. It is India’s largest power company and one of the leading in the world with a long term plan to become 128000 MW Company by the year 2032.
“We had a very good meeting today with top officials of Qatar Electricity and Water Company (QEWC), country’s main power producer. We have expressed our interests in developing a power project in Qatar as well as offering our expertise and other services to them, and received a very positive response,” G Venu, Executive Director (Engg.) at NTPC told The Peninsula.
Venu, who is here leading a four-member delegation from the NTPC, added: “The Qatari side has recognised our expertise, technical and managerial capabilities in power sector.
They have shown great interests and expressed their desire to establish a strong and long-term relationship, and we are also looking for the same types of partners.”
He also said that both sides are looking forward to form joint venture to invest in Qatar, India, Oman and other potential markets with strong demands for power. And senior officials, including operational specialists for power plants from both QEWC and NTPC are expected to visit each other’s facilities in the coming days.
“We have suggested two routes for implanting it. One, government to government level agreement, or another way is to establish a JV with Qatari partnership to invest in Qatar, India, and beyond,” he said.
Venu noted that both sides are also exploring to establish cooperation in the field of renewable energy, such as solar power, in which NTPC has extensive capability with the installed capacity of generating over 6,000MW of solar power across India.
He also noted that the relationship between India and Qatar is complementary, especially in terms of energy cooperation.
India, with a population of over 1.3 billion people, is energy-starved, and witnessing huge demand for all forms of energy, while Qatar, the energy-rich country has huge reserves of natural gas and surplus capital to invest in promising markets.
“There is a win-win situation. We have huge scope for cooperation for mutual benefits… NTPC is one of the largest power companies in the world which enjoys great efficiency and expertise. We have our presence in many overseas countries such as Bangladesh, Sri Lank, Oman, Egypt and many other emerging markets,” he said.
Venu and other members of his accompanying delegation, including Bipin Satya, General Manager for International Business Development for NTPC, are also expected to meet with top executives from Nebras Power, a Doha-based global investment company, which is developing and managing a portfolio of strategic investments in the power sector in several countries.
They also participated in a one-day seminar organised by Indian Business & Professional Council (IBPC) on knowledge-sharing between NTPC and IBPC, which was attended by many professionals and dignitaries, including Indian Ambassador to Qatar P Kumaran; President of IBPC K M Varghese, and many others.
