Friday, December 21, 2007

L&T counter abuzz with new foray talk

The market is abuzz with talk that Larsen & Toubro (L&T) is set to foray into an FPSO (floating production storage and offloading) business. FPSO is a floating platform that engineering companies build after discovering oil in shallow water blocks.

While a rarity in India, elsewhere most oil blocks are in shallow waters. Even in the recent NELP VII of the 57 blocks, nine are in shallow water. For L&T it would mean more of overseas business coming its way.

Oil from wells in the seabed is drawn through pipes to the FPSO and is stored in tanks provided in its hull after some processing on its deck.

The produced crude oil is then offloaded on to shuttle tankers periodically. These vessels are typically suitable for middle- and small-scale oil fields located far away from land. L&T ended marginally lower on BSE at Rs 3,984 on Thursday. Company officials refused to comment on market speculation.

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