Indian Oil Corp (IOC) received just two bids to build the country’s first green hydrogen plant at its Panipat refinery in Haryana, said two industry executives aware of the development. This is in response to the second tender for the project, the first having been scrapped amid accusations of preferential treatment.
One of the two bidders, GH4India, is a joint venture owned equally by IOC, ReNew and engineering major Larsen & Toubro. GH4India was formed in FY23 for development of green hydrogen and its derivatives, including green ammonia and methanol, besides production and associated renewable assets.
Repeat of Last Year
The second bidder is Noida-based Neometrix Engineering, which specialises in turnkey projects, including special purpose machines, and gas handling and boosting systems. It has executed multiple EPC projects for IOC.
The IOC tender is the first Indian effort to determine the price of green hydrogen through a bidding or market-driven exercise.
But in a repeat of last year, which saw the cancellation of a tender for the same project, this time too some of the largest names in engineering and industrial gases have stayed away after initially showing interest by participating in a pre-bid meeting.
Last year’s tender had given rise to accusations of favouritism and restrictive pre-bid technical conditions benefiting the GH4India consortium. In February, ET reported the state-owned refiner had to scrap the maiden tender after it was challenged in the Delhi High Court by an industry association claiming that some of its conditions were anti-competitive and skewed in favour of GH4India. Those accusations are likely to be raised again, said people with knowledge of the matter.
IOC told ET that the bidders had been given time to make their offers during this second tender process. “The tender was extended a number of times to facilitate bidding,” the refiner said in response to queries.
“Altogether, four months were provided for the bids. Several rounds of engagement were carried out with the prospective bidders over a period of four months. Currently, the received bids are under technical evaluation. Further comment can be made once the evaluation process is completed.” The revised bid document had been issued in March.
Close to 30 entities picked up the pre-bid documents in May, said people in the know. They included domestic companies such as InoxAir Products, Acme, Tata Projects, KEC Ltd, Afcons Infrastructure, Thermax, AM Green/Greenko and state-owned NTPC as well as global giants like Siemens, Petronas/Gentari, Sembcorp, EDF, Linde and Matheson among others. The techno-commercial bid was opened late last week, the people said. The date for the price bid will be communicated to the bidders later, they added.
This time around, rivals are questioning the eligibility criteria regarding experience in running hydrogen systems, EPC and electrolysers. As per the technical criteria, a qualified bidder needs to have EPC experience as well as operating a refinery/petrochemical/fertiliser plant for at least 12 months, said people in the know.
“There is only one industry consortium that is a refiner and also EPC player and has renewable energy experience and that is the GH4India consortium where the procurer himself is a 33.4% shareholder,” said one of the officials who evaluated the bid.
Some of the prospective bidders asked for an extension of the deadline to form similar JVs with industrial gas makers as there are only a handful that have scale and experience that can qualify. For example, Air Products already has a JV with Inox Air. Germany’s Linde India arm (formerly BOC India) has also been operating for 80 years in the country, but French major Air Liquide does not have much of a presence yet in the industrial gas space.
IOC hasn’t responded to this yet, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
In the first attempt, the main dispute was over the right of first refusal clause incorporated in the tender notice. Bidders alleged such a clause went against public procurement rules as a public sector undertaking (IOC) was advocating a public private joint venture to have the first right of refusal.
