With a strong R&D footing in India and tested upstream and downstream segment of the country’s hydrocarbon space, global oil and gas major, Shell Plc, is looking at opportunities in CBG (compressed biogas) here.
In one of her first media interactions, the newly appointed Chairman, Shell Group of Companies in India and Vice President Shell Lubricants Asia Pacific, Mansi Madan Tripathy, sharing her thoughts on the major’s India strategy and be part of energy transition story told businessline that “three big things in my mind are clear as regards perspective. One is that like our global strategy we are fully committed to net zero by 2050 in India too. This is also in line with the government policy on how we balance the energy security, energy affordability and emissions drop all in one, together. And Shell is also working on a journey to be a leading energy transition player in the country.”
On asked if this meant shift in focus of Shell here, she said, “Being part of energy transition is where you see our focus shifted on to -- on gas and power and through a recent acquisition of Sprng Energy few years back we define the commitment that we want to move towards renewables.”
“Also, as we go into future, we want to ensure that we are into entire renewable space. It will be a big area which we will be focusing on as we go forward from an energy transition perspective,” she said.
“What is also important is that when you talk about Shell in India, we do have the biggest talent pool globally, having 13,000 plus employees here and we are working for the globe — global R&D, technology, IT, AI, finances from here. So, for Shell globally India is big,” she added.
Tripathy said that what also encourages her is the plans which Shell India has. “We are working with communities through our CSR programs and we are focusing on Nature based solutions like planting trees to generate carbon credits while improving lives in communities,” she said.
Shell in India is much more holistic and much more diversified than any international oil company in the country, she said.
When asked what the strategy of the company in downstream category is, it is already into fuel retailing business in India, she said: “downstream will cover the mobility business and as you know we do have our 350 retail stations and we are progressing more on what you call as non-retail business part of the portfolio which is very strong. Then there is EV charging category, where we have partnered/partnering with our key customers. The other one is lubricants, where we are going strength to strength both into the industrial part of the portfolio and open market.”
“Our gas business is part of Shell Energy India — Hazira LNG terminal,” she said adding the issue is how do you increase your market share? “Well, this is our current footprint, and we are exploring CBG as we go forward,” she added.
On whether there is a proposal to further expand Hazira or go for new project, she said that “there are two parts to it — gas pricing is one aspect which impacts the capacity use. This is where we have to do the maths to ensure capacity is used all time and strategy thereafter.”
Going back to CBG on whether Shell would just like to be a marketeer or would also like to set up a plant, she said “I would say both where our intent is, but currently the business model is yet to be defined in India. While there are lots of pilots happening, there are still uncertainty on the feedstock, issue of pricing is there, grid connectivity, price points where it will flow.”
“So there are lot of things which still need to be defined and we are working with the eco-system to see what the right business model will be, we are working with the government right now to see how we can influence some of the policy decisions so that from the economic perspective it pays out.”
Elaborating further she said, “once we are able to learn through, I guess next couple of months from various pilot projects then I guess once a base model is confirmed that is when we will start scaling up some of these projects”.
On asked if Shell is completely out of India’s upstream segment, she said, “there is no diktat to say we will not look into it. The bigger piece is whether it is in line with our overall strategy of energy transition targets and is it commercially viable proposition. The point is whether it will bring any unique value to Shell. And if a project meets parameters they will go through.”
To the global strategy in the Group, India is an important and is part of top energy transition category for Shell, she added.