Indian Oil Corp (IOC) received just two bids to build India’s first green hydrogen plant at its Panipat refinery in Haryana. This comes after the first tender was canceled due to claims of favoritism.
One bidder, GH4India, is a joint venture between IOC, ReNew, and Larsen & Toubro, formed to develop green hydrogen and related products. The second bidder, Neometrix Engineering, specializes in turnkey projects and has worked with IOC before.
This tender aims to set the price of green hydrogen through bidding. However, just like last year, many big engineering and industrial gas companies backed out after showing initial interest.
Last year’s tender was scrapped after accusations that it favored the GH4India consortium. These concerns are expected to resurface. IOC extended the bidding period to allow more participants, but only two bids were received. The current bids are under technical evaluation.
About 30 companies showed interest in May, including domestic and global giants like Siemens, Tata Projects, and NTPC. The technical bid was opened last week, with the price bid date yet to be announced.
Rivals are questioning the criteria that seem to favor GH4India. The requirements include experience in running hydrogen systems and operating a refinery or similar plant for at least 12 months. Only GH4India meets these criteria comprehensively.
Some potential bidders asked for more time to form similar joint ventures, but IOC has not responded. The main issue in the first tender was a right of first refusal clause that bidders said violated public procurement rules.
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