ndia may see at least six times growth in Indian gas market by 2030 from the current levels, Global oil major Royal Dutch Shell said. It said that LNG may be the largest contributor to it. The prediction comes at a time when India is trying to increase the share of gas in the overall energy mix to over 15 percent by 2030. Currently, India is the fourth largest LNG importer after Japan, Korea, and China, and has four LNG terminals with close to 22 mtpa of re-gasification capacity. Industry experts believe that lack of infrastructure is the major constraint for the absence in demand. India’s pipeline infrastructure stands at 16,240 km and an additional 10,258 km of pipelines are under construction. Though Shell had planned to float an LNG terminal off the coast of Kakinada in tie up with GAIL (India) Ltd and Engie, its progress is also slow because of the demand shortage. LNG demand growth from China, India and new entrants absorbed supply growth in 2016
Petronet LNG Ltd, India’s biggest importer of liquid gas, is in talks to buy 25% stake GSPC almost complete ₹ 45 billion Mundra LNG import terminal in Gujarat. The 5 mtpa import terminal, the third facility in Gujarat for import of natural gas in its liquid form in ships, is nearing completion and GSPC is keen to shed some of its stakes to lighten its debt burden. GSPC first offered its 50% stake in the project to state refiner IOC but the company was willing to take no more than 25-26%. So now, GSPC is talking to Petronet for selling 25% stake. The Adani group holds 25% interest in the LNG import terminal. GSPC LNG, a unit of GSPC, will hold 25% stake, similar to IOC and Petronet once the deal concludes. With a view to expanding its gas business, IOC is keen to buy a stake in the Mundra terminal. Petronet, too, is keen to raise its import capacity. Petronet operates a 15 mtpa LNG import facility at Dahej in Gujarat and has another 5 mtpa terminal at Kochi in Kerala. IOC is building a 5 mtpa LNG import terminal at Ennore in Tamil Nadu by 2018-end. Besides the Dahej LNG import facility of Petronet, Gujarat has another 5 mtpa terminal of Shell at Hazira. Initially, eight firms, including state gas utility GAIL, had expressed interest in buying the stake, but only three were finalised. GSPC has now rejigged the entire stake sale, by offering half of its stake to IOC and another 25% to Petronet. GSPC is looking at a partner which can bring in LNG or consume the imported liquid gas. The Mundra terminal, which is to be financed with a debt to equity ratio of 70:30, is expandable up to 10 mtpa in the near future.
The GST Council may decide to include natural gas in the GST regime as a measure to provide some relief to the oil and gas sector. Currently, crude oil, petrol, diesel, jet fuel and natural gas are not included in the new indirect tax structure. This essentially means that various goods and services procured by the oil and gas industry will be subject to GST, but the sale and supply of oil, gas and petroleum products will continue to attract earlier taxes like excise duty and VAT. Unlike other industries which can take credit for any tax paid towards furtherance of business, no credits on input GST will be available to the oil and gas industry leading to huge additional indirect tax burden with stranded costs of about ₹ 250 billion. The oil ministry has taken up with the finance ministry for early inclusion of all the five exempted products in GST. So far, inclusion of natural gas in GST has not been listed on agenda, but there is a concentrated push for doing so. If natural gas is included, GST paid on inputs and services used for producing natural gas can be set off against taxes on its sale. This would cut the losses to the industry by one-fifth. The move will benefit companies like ONGC as well as gas retailers like IGL.
An OVL led consortium has offered to invest as much as $6 billion on the Farzad-B field and spend the remaining amount to build an LNG export facility. The group is seeking a return of about 18 percent, and Indian companies are willing to buy all the gas exported from the project. As India, the world’s fourth-largest LNG buyer, seeks to lock up gas resources to meet growing demand and spur the use of cleaner-burning fuels, Iran is emerging from sanctions that stifled investment in its energy sector. The two countries had aimed to conclude a deal by February on developing the field, which India has said holds reserves of almost 19 trillion cubic feet. The consortium, which includes IOC and OIL, has been trying to secure development rights to the Farzad-B gas field since at least 2009. OVL and IOC each own 40 percent interest in the Farsi block that holds Farzad-B field, while OIL has 20 percent.
RIL is reportedly considering a plan to enter retailing of LNG and setting up of charging stations for electric vehicles at its petrol pumps. At the end of April 2017, RIL operated 1,221 of its 1,470 fuel retail outlets. The company plans to re-open the rest of the outlets by the end of the year. RIL holds licences for 5,000 fuel retail outlets. Royal Dutch Shell and Petronet LNG, importers of LNG are also planning to set up LNG retail outlets in the country. RIL and BP said that the companies would expand their existing partnership for strategic cooperation on new opportunities across India’s energy sector.
CCI ordered a fresh investigation against GAIL for alleged abuse of dominant position with regard to supply of natural gas. This is the second time in less than one year that the company has come under the lens of the watchdog for alleged unfair business practices. After finding prima-facie evidence of competition norms violations, the CCI has ordered the probe based on a complaint by Rajasthan-based TMT bars maker Shri Rathi Steel (Dakshin) Ltd. It was alleged that GAIL abused its dominant position by incorporating unfair terms and conditions in the GSA. For this case, the regulator considered the market for supply and distribution of natural gas to industrial consumers at Alwar in Rajasthan as the relevant one. Shri Rathi Steel had entered into a GSA pact with GAIL in March 2009. The conduct of GAIL in implementing such ToP liability from 2015 appears to be a modus to ensure de facto exclusivity of the contractual arrangement. It is observed that imposition of ToP liability as per contractual terms cannot per se be regarded as abuse of dominant position, the CCI said.
RIL, which began commercial production of CBM gas from two blocks in Madhya Pradesh this March, is buying the gas for its own use at around $7.8 per mmBtu. The two blocks are located in Sohagpur East and West. RIL was awarded these blocks in 2001, in the first round of CBM auctions. The government had on 15 March approved pricing and marketing freedom for producers of natural gas from CBM. The company had been deferring CBM gas production due to lack of clarity over pricing. CBM is a natural gas stored or absorbed in coal seams and contains 90-95% methane. Other than RIL, Great Eastern Energy Corp Ltd and Essar Oil Ltd are the two existing players selling CBM gas in the market. RIL holds another CBM block in Sonhat, Chhattisgarh. Reliance Gas Pipeline Ltd, an RIL subsidiary, has laid around 312 km of pipeline to carry natural gas from Shahdol in Madhya Pradesh close to its CBM blocks to Phulpur in Uttar Pradesh.
ONGC has reiterated that it had taken up only routine maintenance work in the oil well at Kadiramangalam in Thanjavur district and denied allegations by certain organisations that it had taken up exploration of coal bed methane and shale gas in the delta. The Kadiramangalam well was drilled in 2000 and oil and natural gas was produced from it and later on linked to the nearby Gas Collection Station at Kuttalam. The production was through pipes with very small diameter and at a depth of more than 2,300 metres which operations called for proper cleaning and replacement of old tubing in a scheduled interval. Previously, maintenance work was done in 2009 when the tubings were replaced and similar works were carried out a fortnight back. Explaining that during the maintenance work no harmful chemicals were used they also observed that the ONGC was extracting only oil and natural gas for the past 34 years in the Cauvery delta region. The ONGC programme remained the same though several technological developments have been brought into the field operations over the years, they pointed out in the release.
China’s LNG receiving capacity is expected to rise 8.6 percent a year to 100 mtpa by 2025, the NDRC said. Storage capacity of natural gas, including LNG, is forecast to rise 17 percent a year from 2015 to 2025 to reach 40 bcm, the NDRC said. The NDRC also expects pipeline capacity for natural gas imports to rise 7.6 percent a year from 2015 to 2025 to hit 150 bcm. The world’s top consumer of oil and coal, China has embarked on a huge investment programme to expand its LNG and pipeline infrastructure. China’s oil and gas pipelines are expected to total 169,000 kms by 2020 and 240,000 kms by 2025, the NDRC said.
China is ramping up both imports and domestic production of natural gas, with the combined rate of growth running well ahead of the government’s target for boosting the use of the cleaner-burning fuel. Official data for domestic production, imports via pipelines and imports of LNG show the total amount of natural gas available in China in the first five months of the year was the equivalent of 72.01 mtpa of LNG. China has set a target of increasing the share of natural gas in energy consumption from 5.9 percent in 2015 to 10 percent in 2020, an average annual increase of 4.1 percent. So far this year, China’s output and imports of the fuel are running at more than double the annual rate needed to reach the official target. The biggest gainer has been imports of LNG, which are up 38.4 percent in the first five months of 2017 to 12.86 mt while pipeline imports have dropped 4.4 percent to 12.65 mt. Domestic natural gas production has been a strong gainer, rising almost 7 percent in the January to May period to 62.88 bcm to 64 bcm. The rise in natural gas output stands in sharp contrast to the decline in crude oil production, which fell to the lowest on record in May as output declines from older fields. Natural gas has also outperformed coal in the first five months of the year. The jump in imports of LNG shows how the super-chilled fuel is becoming more competitive with pipeline imports from central Asia. Customs data from May shows that the average landed cost of LNG was $7.28 per mmBtu. Among China’s LNG suppliers Australia has fared best, with imports rising 42.7 percent in the first five months to 5.39 mt almost double that of second-placed Qatar at 2.84 mt. Malaysia is the third-biggest supplier to China, with 1.82 mt in the first five months, up 90 percent from the same period in 2016. The price being paid by China for LNG tells part of the story, with cargoes from Australia landing at $6.80 per mmBtu in May, well below the $8.95 per mmBtu for Qatar and slightly ahead of the $6.49 per mmBtu for Malaysia. Australia’s price advantage is still largely tied to the 25-year supply deal from the North West Shelf venture, signed in 2002 at a fixed price of $3.80 per mmBtu.
Russia’s largest natural gas producer Gazprom will start supplying fuel to China through Siberia on December 20, 2019. The deal is the latest sign that Russia is tightening its ties with China, a major gas buyer. It comes at a time of turmoil for rival major exporter Qatar amid a dispute with its Gulf neighbours who have imposed political and economic sanctions on Doha. The new pipeline, dubbed the “Power of Siberia”, has a planned annual capacity of 38 bcm. CNPC said that it agreed to speed up the construction of pipeline and market development, as well as natural gas processing plants and domestic underground gas storage facilities to make sure the project starts on time. While the start date appears ambitious, analysts said the volume on the pipeline by the end of 2019 would likely be low and ramping up to full capacity would take some time. Russia needs to develop two new gas fields in order to fill it.
Thirteen EU nations voiced support for a proposal to empower the bloc’s executive to negotiate with Russia over objections to a new Russian gas pipeline to Germany, despite opposition from Berlin. At an informal debate among EU Energy Ministers, Germany’s partners in the 28-nation bloc spoke out against Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline plan to pump more gas directly from Russia’s Baltic coast to Germany. EU nations are expected to vote in the autumn on the European Commission’s request for a mandate to negotiate with Russia on behalf of the bloc as a whole. Germany, the main beneficiary of the pipeline, sees it as a purely commercial project, with no role for the Commission. The plan taps into divisions among the bloc over doing business with Russia, which covers a third of the EU’s gas needs, despite sanctions against Moscow over its military intervention in Ukraine. With the pipeline expected to reroute some Russian gas supplies around Ukraine to the north, Italy voiced concerns it would increase gas prices for customers further down the line.
Cheniere Energy Inc, the sole exporter of LNG from US shale basins, commenced a 20-year supply agreement with Korea Gas Corp. Under the deal originally signed in 2012, Cheniere will make available for delivery about 3.5 mt of LNG to South Korea, the world’s second-biggest buyer last year, representing at least $548 million of revenue per year. Just last year, the first cargo of LNG from the lower 48 states sailed from Cheniere’s Sabine Pass terminal in Louisiana. Now, buyers including South Korea, Mexico, Chile and Japan have set the US on a path to becoming a net gas exporter for the first time in decades. As the surge in production from America’s shale reservoirs transforms the nation into a global gas powerhouse, the US may surpass Australia and Qatar to becoming the world’s largest LNG supplier by 2035. South Korea has already received eight cargoes loaded with Sabine Pass gas as of June 21, according to data. But the vessel that will arrive early next month will be the first to be received under the long-term supply deal. South Korea bought 34.19 mt of LNG last year, according to the International Group of LNG importers, the second most after Japan. Cheniere is already the biggest US buyer of physical natural gas. And once all seven trains the company’s building at Sabine Pass and a Corpus Christi, Texas, terminal are online, it expects to be two to three times bigger than the second-largest consumer.
President Donald Trump is expected to use fast-growing supplies of US natural gas as a political tool with a dozen countries that are captive to Russia for their energy needs. In recent years, Moscow has cut off gas shipments during pricing disputes with neighbouring countries in winter months. The message from the US would be that exports from the US would help reduce their dependence on Russia. This will help US companies to ship more LNG to central and eastern Europe. The Three Seas project which is designed to meet this goal aims to expand regional energy infrastructure, including LNG import terminals and gas pipelines. Members of the initiative include Poland, Austria, Hungary and Russia’s neighbours Latvia and Estonia. The US is expected to become the world’s third-largest exporter of LNG in 2020, just four years after starting up its first export terminal. US exporters have sold most of that gas in long-term contracts, but there are still some volumes on offer, and more export projects on the drawing board. Cheniere Energy Inc, which opened the first US LNG export terminal in 2016, delivered its first cargo to Poland in June. Five more terminals are expected to be online by 2020.
Japan’s Tokyo Gas, the world’s largest importer of LNG, is in talks to renew supply contracts and will push to revise terms to get more flexibility and cut prices. The push for easier terms, a major concern among Japanese utilities after the Fukushima nuclear disaster six years ago led to a surge in LNG imports and drove prices higher, got a boost when the country’s anti-trust regulator last month ruled restrictions in supply contracts were anti-competitive. The decision by Japan’s Fair Trade Commission to rule that so-called destination clauses that restrict resale of LNG cargoes are anti-competitive is likely to lead to more trading by buyers in Japan and could prompt challenges to similar restrictions elsewhere in Asia. Asian LNG buyers have long complained that having destination clauses in LNG contracts unfairly restricts trading of the fuel at times when it would make more economic sense for buyers to on-sell supplies to other markets.
Indonesia is unlikely to need to import LNG until at least 2020 due to robust gas production from the Jangkrik gas field operated by Eni even as the government has pushed increased domestic gas consumption. The field was designed to produce 12.7 mcm per day of gas but output could be up to 16.9 mcm per day. Currently the world’s fifth-biggest exporter of LNG, Indonesia has lost market share to new production from Australia and Qatar and as output is reserved for domestic needs. However, the domestic gas market has not developed as anticipated even after the government promoted the fuel to replace coal for power plants and as an industrial fuel. BP’s Tangguh Train 3 project will supply more gas to Indonesia from 2020 onwards. These supplies could be redirected to other LNG buyers in Asia, particularly Bangladesh. Meanwhile, Indonesia is looking for buyers for 16 to 18 uncommitted LNG cargoes for this year. He expects an average of 50 to 60 uncommitted cargoes per year until 2035.
Iran will see a steep rise in its natural gas output and exports after last year’s easing of Western sanctions. Iran’s gas production would rise to 1 bcm per day by the end of the year from the current 800 mcm per day. Volumes available for export should reach 365 mcm per day by 2021, which is higher than the exports of the world’s top LNG producer Qatar. France’s Total signed a deal earlier this month to help Iran increase gas output from the giant South Pars gas field, which the country shares with Qatar. Total will be the operator with a 50.1 percent stake, alongside China National Petroleum Corp with 30 percent and National Iranian Oil Co subsidiary Petropars with 19.9 percent. The deal marked the first by a major global energy company signed with Iran since the easing of sanctions against Tehran in January 2016.
Pakistan said it could become one of the world’s top-five buyers of LNG as imports could jump more than fivefold as private companies build new LNG terminals. Pakistan’s ambitious plans, if fully implemented, could shake up the global LNG market. Imports could top 30 mtpa by 2022, up from just 4.5 mtpa currently. Cheaper than fuel oil and cleaner burning than coal, LNG suits emerging economies seeking to bridge electricity shortfalls and support growth on tight budgets. Pakistan built its first LNG terminal in 2015 and, after some delays, a second terminal is due to come online in October, doubling annual import capacity to about 9 mtpa. A consortium of Exxon Mobil, Total, Mitsubishi, Qatar Petroleum and Norway’s Hoegh is expected to decide by September whether to build a third LNG terminal for about $700 million. Pakistan has dropped plans to finance up to two more terminals, as private companies have said they would finance these themselves and use Pakistan’s existing gas network to sell directly to consumers. Pakistan is in talks with Russia, Indonesia, Malaysia and Oman about government-to-government deals for up to three monthly LNG cargoes for its second terminal, which can import 16.9 mcm per day equal to six cargoes a month. Tenders for two of the terminal’s six cargoes have already been won by trading house Gunvor and Italy’s Eni, which have signed 5-year and 15-year deals, respectively. The contracts are worth about $5 billion over their lifetime. Qatar supplies most of the gas for Pakistan’s first LNG terminal.
Qatari exports of LNG remain stable amid ongoing tension between the world’s biggest LNG exporter and its neighbours. Qatar said that its exports, including of LNG, to Japan, India, South Korea and China had not been affected by a boycott. Exports to the four Asian countries account for nearly three quarters of its total exports.
France’s Total signed a deal with Tehran to develop phase 11 of Iran’s South Pars, the world’s largest gas field, marking the first major Western energy investment in the Islamic Republic since the lifting of sanctions against it. Total will be the operator with a 50.1 percent stake, alongside China National Petroleum Corp with 30 percent, and National Iranian Oil Co subsidiary Petropars with 19.9 percent. The project will have a production capacity of 400,000 boe per day including condensate, Total said that the gas will supply the Iranian domestic market starting in 2021. The first stage of the South Pars development will cost around $2 billion, Total said. The project will cost up to $5 billion and production is expected to start within 40 months, Iran’s oil ministry said. The offshore field was first developed in the 1990s. Total was one of the biggest investors in Iran until the country drew international sanctions in 2006 over suspicions that Tehran was trying to develop nuclear arms. Iran, the third-largest producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, hopes its new petroleum contracts will attract foreign companies and boost oil and gas output after years of under-investment.
Iran has begun exporting gas through a pipeline to Baghdad under a deal set to make Iraq the Islamic republic’s top customer, the oil ministry said. A new pipeline links western Iran to Baghdad, while a second in Iran’s southwest will pump Iranian gas to the southern Iraqi city of Basra. Once the Basra pipe comes online, Iraq’s total gas imports from Iran are set to reach up to 70 mcm per day. Iran sits on the world’s second largest natural gas reserves and produces some 600 mcm per day. But despite almost doubling its oil exports since international sanctions were lifted under a 2015 nuclear deal, it consumes most of its gas domestically – partly for lack of export infrastructure. Turkey has so far been its only export client, importing some 30 mcm per day under a 1996 deal. The Islamic republic, seeking to expand its gas market, is developing production facilities in the huge offshore oil and gas field of South Pars, which it shares with Qatar.
Poland temporarily halted gas deliveries from Russia via the Yamal pipeline due to poor quality of the gas, which Russia said was due to a “short-term technical problem.” Poland’s state gas pipeline operator Gaz-System said it would not resume receiving gas deliveries until June 23, but that the move would have no impact on the security or balance of the Polish domestic gas distribution system. Gazprom Export, the export arm of the Russian gas monopoly Gazprom, said a technical problem occurred on June 20 and the company’s specialists were taking all necessary measures to solve the issue. Poland consumes some 16 bcm of gas a year but most of it comes from Russia as Poland’s biggest gas firm PGNiG has a long-term gas supply contract with Gazprom – the so-called Yamal contract – that runs until 2022. PGNiG said it had stopped receiving gas from the Yamal pipeline for winter reserves.
Polish gas pipeline operator Gaz-System expects the North-South Gas Corridor linking LNG terminals in Poland and Croatia to be ready by 2022. For Poland, seeking to reduce its dependence on Russian gas, 2022 could mark a turning point for its domestic gas market. Warsaw has said it does not intend to extend the long-term gas deal with Russia’s Gazprom when it expires in 2022. By then Poland plans to build a gas link called the Baltic Pipe to Norway to tap into gas deposits in the North Sea. With its already operational LNG terminal on the Baltic Sea, Poland could then replace Russian gas with other sources and also resell the excess to neighbouring countries. A key part is a cross-border gas link connecting the Polish and Czech systems, which has faced numerous delays. The gas market in central Europe is undergoing significant change in the light of increased LNG supplies and as in many countries long-term supply deals with Russia were about to expire.
July 25, 2017. The country’s crude oil output rose 0.24 percent and natural gas production was up 4.04 percent in the June quarter of 2017 due to a push from state-run companies like Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) and Oil India Ltd (OIL). Cumulative crude oil production by ONGC in Q1 was 5,640.77 thousand metric tonne (tmt), which is 0.22 percent lower than the period’s target but 2.71 percent higher than production during the year-ago period. OIL produced 839.86 tmt, about 5.22 percent higher than the last year’s corresponding period. However, the production from private and joint venture (JV) fields dropped 6.23 percent to 2,541.74 tmt year-over-year (y-o-y). The overall crude oil output in June 2017 was 0.6 percent higher than June 2016, owing to a better performance by public sector undertakings. On the other hand, cumulative natural gas production during the April-June period rose 4.04 percent to 8,057.72 million metric standard cubic meters (mmscm) y-o-y. During the quarter, ONGC produced 10.76 percent higher than the year-ago period’s production, while OIL’s output fell 0.98 percent compared to last year. Cumulative natural gas production by private and JV players in Q1 was 1,605.39 mmscm, 12.82 percent lower than the production during the corresponding period of the last year. In June, the country’s natural gas production zoomed 6.05 percent y-o-y. Closure of some wells in Rajasthan and Panna-Mukta majorly contributed to the drop in private sector’s crude oil production. Meanwhile, under performance of coal bed methane wells at Sohagpur West by Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), closure of few wells in Raniganj East by Essar, delay in grant for petroleum mining lease in Hindustan Oil Exploration Company (HOEC) and closure of two wells in D1D3 field and one well in MA field in KG-DWN-98/3 by RIL are the major reasons behind the drop in natural gas production by private sector compared to the year-ago period. Refinery production in June 2017 was 20,057.80 tmt, 0.11 percent higher than the target but 0.54 percent lower y-o-y. Cumulative production in Q1 was 60,898.38 tmt, 1.04% higher than the output during the year-ago period.
Source: Business Standard
July 24, 2017. Engineering firm Essar Projects said it has tested and commissioned the coke drum structure package (CDSP) for BPCL (Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd)’s Kochi Refinery. This contract is a part of BPCL- Kochi Refinery’s integrated refinery expansion project and the contract value of this package is Rs 645 crore, the company said. The project will increase operating capacity of the refinery to 15.5 million metric tonnes per annum (mtpa) from 9.5 mtpa. Upon completion, the refinery will contribute towards making south India self-sufficient in products, such as liquefied petroleum gas, motor spirit and high speed diesel.
Source: Business Standard
July 24, 2017. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will head a 3-member ministerial panel to oversee and expedite the sale of government stake in oil refiner Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) to explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said. HPCL will remain a public sector unit with a separate board and brand identity post ONGC acquiring government’s entire 51.11 % stake, which at current prices is valued at about Rs 28,800 crore. Post-merger all refining units of ONGC will be accumulated under HPCL, making it India’s third largest oil refiner after Indian Oil Corp (IOC) and Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), Pradhan said. He said the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) had given ‘in-principle’ approval for strategic sale of the government’s existing 51.11 % stake in HPCL to ONGC along with the transfer of management control. Pradhan and Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari will be part of the ministerial panel. Valuation and transaction advisers will be appointed soon, he said. After the acquisition by ONGC, HPCL will continue to be a central government public sector enterprise. HPCL plans to set up a 9 million tonne unit in Rajasthan as well as expand its Vishakhapatnam refinery in Andhra Pradesh. This will take the company to 50 million tonnes-plus category, he said. For ONGC, the deal will bring to it assurance of market as well as greater capability to bid for not just oil and gas fields but also refinery and downstream projects abroad, he said.
Source: Hindustan Times
July 24, 2017. mjunction services limited, one of the country’s largest e-commerce companies and a 50:50 joint venture between Steel Authority of India Ltd and Tata Steel, has been appointed by the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) to build a platform for e-bidding, e-evaluation of bids, and e-allocation of oil and gas (O&G) fields. This will enable transparent allocation of natural resources, and help reduce the country’s oil import bill by $8 billion annually, mjunction said. DGH is the nodal agency under the oil ministry for allocation of O&G fields to interested bidders for exploration and production activities. mjunction will customise its e-bidding software to provide facilities to electronically receive and evaluate bids and to automatically allocate O&G fields under the Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy (HELP) framework, which was introduced in 2015. HELP replaced the 18-year-old New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP), and is expected to remove its various limitations which led to inefficiencies in exploiting natural resources.
Source: The Economic Times
July 23, 2017. Investigation into the theft of crude oil from Cairn Oil and Gas in Barmer has unearthed a racket of crores of rupees in which a gang of over 100 people, including company employees, was involved. Twenty-five accused have been arrested so far. They stole 10 million litres of crude oil every year from the company. In the last 4-5 years, 40 million litres of crude oil was stolen and sent to Gujarat, Kolkata, Delhi and other states. The racket has incurred a loss Rs 45-50 crore to the state government. Looking at the seriousness of the issue, senior officers of the state petroleum department have reached Barmer to investigate the matter. Meanwhile, district collector Shiv Prasad Nakate has ordered an investigation on many points including explosive licence of the factory, revenue loss to the government, etc. The investigation will cover many legal points. The entire matter is associated with security as Cairn Oil and Gas is under strict vigil. Despite that, the theft took place, which is very serious. At present, police are investigating the case and the petroleum department officer has also reached for a probe, Nakate said. Barmer SP Gagandeep Singhla said that on July 14, 2017, a case was lodged at Nagana police station by Cairn Oil and Gas stating that crude oil instead of producer water was filled in tankers and stolen. Every day 15,000-20,000 litres of crude oil was sold to the factory owners, Singhla said. As per the present rate, every day the company was suffering a loss of Rs 3 lakh, Rs 90 lakh a month and Rs 11 crore a year. Over 100 people including tanker owners, drivers, helpers, factory owners, production and unloading point surveyors, HSE technicians were named in the case. Along the southern area of Cairn Oil and Gas, 44 tankers belonging to Narendra Road Lines and Mohangarh Construction Company were pressed for transporting crude oil. Of them, 39 were involved in illegal business. Thirty-three tankers have been seized.
Source: The Economic Times
July 21, 2017. Despite continuous efforts taken by ONGC (Oil and Natural Gas Corp)’s to garner support from the farming community for the execution of the ongoing oil and gas extraction process, there was no respite from the pace of the protests against ONGC in Kathiramangalam and Neduvasal. While the Kathiramangalam protest touched the 61st day, the Neduvaasal protest hit the century mark. During the first phase, protesters from Neduvasal in Pudukottai district staged a 22-day long agitation against the proposed oil and gas extraction which commenced on February 15, 2017. The protest has now entered its 100th day. Meanwhile, about 100 people, including women gathered in front of the Ayyanar temple in Kathiramangalam village and staged a sit-in protest demanding ONGC should be vacated from their village immediately. Residents of the village had been indulging in different types of protest including holding rallies, cooking protest and demonstration.
Source: The Times of India
July 20, 2017. Set with a steep target to cut India’s oil imports by 10 percent by 2022, the oil ministry has formed an inter-ministry monitoring and advisory body to achieve the mark through a combination of raising domestic output and relying on alternate fuel sources. The first meeting of the newly formed Integrated Monitoring and Advisory Council (IMAC) was held wherein the progress on import reduction of oil and gas was reviewed, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had in March 2015 set a target to cut India’s reliance on imports for meeting its oil needs by 10 percent to 67 percent by 2022. IMAC was envisaged to facilitate better coordination and comprehensive strategy for all energy resources by focusing on supply and demand side management.
Source: The Times of India
July 25, 2017. Oil and gas fields in the Krishna Godavari (KG) Basin in India’s eastern offshore would attract investment of about $23 billion for these hydrocarbons’ exploitation. The new oil and gas production from these fields in the KG Basin is expected to reach up to 22.27 billion cubic meters of gas, and 4.68 million metric tonnes of oil by 2021-22, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said. Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) and British major, BP, announced the creation of a joint venture energy vertical to work across the entire value chain, involving investment of $6 billion, or Rs 40,000 crore. This would also develop their existing deep water gas fields in India’s eastern offshore to bring to fresh production 1 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas by 2022. Pradhan said that the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs had given in-principle approval for sale of the government’s 51.11 percent stake along with the management control of oil marketer HPCL to the exploration firm Oil and Natural Gas Corp Ltd (ONGC). Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) will continue as a public sector undertaking after ONGC acquires its stake, he said.
Source: The Statesman
July 23, 2017. Indraprastha Gas Ltd (IGL), the sole retailer of CNG and piped natural gas in national capital region (NCR), said it has started a pilot project to run diesel generators on gas in residential complexes with a view to cut pollution levels. Many residential societies in Delhi, Noida, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad use diesel-run generators as power backup. The pilot to run these on cleaner, cheaper gas was started, the company said. While running at full capacity, the usage of gas and diesel is expected to be in the ratio of 70:30. However, due to limited occupancy levels in residential complexes, the usage of both gas and diesel is expected to be equal. In line with its vision to be a clean energy solutions provider to the society, IGL has started approaching residential complexes across Delhi, Noida, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad to convert their power backup arrangements to run on gas.
Source: The Economic Times
July 23, 2017. Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is paying 6 percent more price to buy coal-bed methane gas from its own block in Madhya Pradesh in the second quarter of current fiscal, the company said. RIL had in May become the first buyer of gas it produced from its own coal-bed methane (CBM) block after agreeing to pay the highest price for the fuel. It paid $4.23 per million metric British thermal unit (mmBtu) for the CBM produced during May-June. RIL said it began CBM production from its Sohagpur blocks in Madhya Pradesh in March this year. Following the April decision of the government to give CBM producers freedom to discover market price, RIL invited bids from users of gas. The price discovered in the process was $4.23 for May-June and $4.5 for July-September. The rate is almost double the $2.48 per mmBtu price RIL gets for natural gas produced from its eastern offshore KG-D6 block. RIL said average production of gas from KG-D6 was 6.4 million metric standard cubic meters per day (mmscmd) and oil and condensate at 2,791 barrels per day during April-June quarter. This compares to 7.4 mmscmd of average gas production and 3,749 bdp of oil and condensate production during January- March. RIL has invested about $500 million in CBM and laying a 300-km pipeline from Sohagpur to Phulpur in Uttar Pradesh to connect to the national gas grid.Through the April 13 notification, the oil ministry had stated that a CBM producer has to call for open bids for sale of coal gas and seek price quotes to discover the market price. The process prescribed was the same as the one RIL had run in 2012 to discover a price for CBM gas it is to produce in Madhya Pradesh. Back in 2012, it had sought bids for 3.5 mmscmd (as against 0.40 mmscmd put on offer this time) of coal gas from its Sohagpur CBM block in Madhya Pradesh at a benchmarked rate at 12.67 percent of Japan Customs- Cleared Crude, plus $0.26 per mmBtu. The formula was the same at which Petronet LNG, a joint venture of public sector oil companies, whose chairman is the oil secretary, used to buy long-term liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Qatar. At $100 per barrel oil price prevalent that year, CBM from RIL’s Madhya Pradesh block was to cost $12.93 per mmBtu. At $55 a barrel rate currently, it would cost $7.2. That formula was, however, rejected by the ministry even though 59 valid bids seeking about 70 mmscmd of gas were received in the open tender. This time, RIL sought bids in form of a deductible from Platts DES West India price of $7.659 per mmBtu.
Source: Zee News
July 21, 2017. The government may extend City Gas Distribution (CGD) infrastructure to eleven states by 2022, data presented by Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan in Parliament showed. Downstream regulator Petroleum Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) has identified 228 Geographical Areas (GAs) for CGD bidding by 2022. The identified GAs include 11 new states and Union Territories — Bihar, J&K, Jharkhand, Odisha, Punjab, West Bengal, Puducherry, Uttarakhand, Chattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. The biddings and subsequent setting up of infrastructure may come as a big relief for consumers of states without any Piped Natural Gas (PNG) facility. Currently, only 15 states and UTs in India have CGD and PNG facilities. In total 36 lakh households in the country are connected with PNG. Almost half of these connections are in Gujarat (16.62 lakh) followed by Maharashtra (10.11 lakh), New Delhi (5.24 lakh) and UP (2.75 lakh). The government has set a target to provide PNG connections to 10 million households by 2019. As per the data available, the government has managed to meet 36 percent of this target upto May 2017.
Source: The Economic Times
July 25, 2017. An ambitious plan to reduce the dependence of India’s coal-fired power plants on freshwater has stalled in its starting blocks. The policy for some plants to use treated sewage water, introduced last year, is impractical and economically non-viable, according to the Greenpeace report, “Pipe Dreams”. A severe drought in 2016 forced several coal plants to shut down, causing the loss of nearly 11 billion units of power — and an estimated potential revenue of $560 million — between January and July 2016. The energy ministry, through a government notification in January 2016, made it mandatory for all thermal power within 50 kilometres of a sewage treatment plant to use treated wastewater in their operations. Only eight percent of all coal plants in India are able to completely meet their water needs in this way, according to the report. Some five percent of plants can partially satisfy their water needs through treated sewage, but a staggering 87 percent of India’s 200 GW coal power plants cannot follow the policy because they have no access to treated sewage water. The states of Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh, for example, jointly produce 77 GW of coal power but can only supply enough treated sewage water to generate 1.5 GW. The report concludes that switching from freshwater to treated sewage water will not reduce the impact of coal power plants on India’s water scarcity.
Source: The Economic Times
July 24, 2017. Coal India Ltd (CIL) has invited applications from independent power producers to take part in the auction of coal linkages under the Scheme for Harnessing and Allocating Koyala Transparently in India (Shakti). In May, the coal ministry had directed the coal producer that the miner may grant coal linkages to the power producers or independent power producers (IPPs) having long-term power purchase agreements. The ministry said the coal linkage auction would be based on discounts on the power tariff. The discount by generating companies would be adjusted from the gross amount of bill at the time of billing, i.e., the original bill shall be raised as per the terms and conditions of the power purchase agreement (PPA) and the discount would be reduced from the gross amount of the bill. The ministry had said CIL/SCCL (Singareni Collieries Company Ltd) may grant future coal linkages on auction basis for power producers/IPPs (Independent Power Producers) without PPAs that are either commissioned or to be commissioned.
Source: The Economic Times
July 24, 2017. Coal India Ltd (CIL) will close down high-risk mines that are beyond mitigation. CIL has graded all mines in high, moderate and low risk categories. Mine-wise action plan to mitigate high and moderate risks and bring such mines into low risk category has been done by CIL, Coal Minister Piyush Goyal said. Safety in coal mining is a priority for the Centre, the minister said. The government has made it mandatory to annually conduct safety audit of all coal mines. In December last year, CIL arm Eastern Coalfields saw Lalmatia mine collapse that claimed 18 lives. The incident took place on December 29 when a massive mound of earth came crashing down on excavators at the Lalmatia open cast coal mine, the worst such disaster in over a decade.
Source: The Indian Express
July 20, 2017. The government said that coal cess will contribute to the GST (Goods and Services Tax) compensation fund, a corpus meant for compensating states for revenue losses in the wake of shifting to the new indirect tax regime. The cess on coal has been continued at Rs 400 per tonne under the GST regime. After five years, any amount left would be shared on 50 percent basis between Centre and States, Power and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal said. Goyal said that a total of 14,305 gas-based power generation plants are stranded in the country due to non-availability of domestic gas.
Source: The Times of India
July 19, 2017. India plans to increase its import of coking coal from Canada in a bid to diversify its import basket, the Indian steel ministry said. India was in talks with Canada’s Teck Resources Ltd for long-term purchase agreements after a cyclonic disruption in Australia cut supplies earlier this year.
Source: Reuters
July 25, 2017. Financial losses of power distribution companies (discoms) of states which have joined the Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY) have fallen by 21.5% in the year to Rs 40,295 crore in FY17. Discoms of Rajasthan, which saved about Rs 4,700 crore through lower interest costs, saw losses falling by 54% to Rs 5,208 crore. Decrease in losses corresponds with significant savings made by the discoms through lower interest costs, as per the design of the UDAY scheme. Governments of 16 states have taken over around Rs 2.3 lakh crore debt of their discoms as per the terms of UDAY. This helped in lowering interest rates to 7-8.5% from around 11-12%, resulting in discoms saving Rs 11,989 crore till December 2016. Some discoms of other big states, traditionally burdened with huge losses, also saw significant improvements in their financial performances. Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra witnessed drop in losses by 14%, 16%, 35% and 8% to Rs 6,619 crore, Rs 4,813 crore, Rs 3,783 crore and Rs 2,568 crore, respectively. However, financial losses of discoms of Punjab, Jharkhand and Bihar have increased by 20%, 72% and 53% to Rs 2,386 crore, Rs 2,001 crore and Rs 1,641 crore, respectively. The performances of several state discoms have seen an improvement since they signed up for UDAY. The gap between the discoms’ average cost of supply and average revenue realised narrowed by Rs 0.07/unit in FY17 to Rs 0.47/unit. The average aggregate technical and commercial losses for all UDAY states has come down by about four percentage points to 20.2% as well. Research firm Icra recently said UDAY has improved the liquidity profile of the discoms to some extent and expects Discoms book losses on a national level to decline from Rs 60,000 crore in FY16 to Rs 35,000 crore in FY18. However, the firm also estimated that the overall subsidy dependence of the state-owned power discoms for FY18 would increase annually by about 7-8% to around Rs 81,000 crore.
Source: The Financial Express
July 25, 2017. 13,872 un-electrified villages have been reported to be electrified up to June 30, 2017, Power Minister Piyush Goyal said. The total number of un-electrified villages in the country stood at 18,452 as on April 1, 2015 and the government’s time-frame to electrify all the villages is May 1, 2018. Goyal said that the Decentralized Distributed Generation (DDG) scheme, under Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY), has been initiated by the government to provide access to electricity to un-electrified villages/habitations where grid connectivity is either not feasible or not cost effective including the villages located in backward, remote, inaccessible and forest areas.
Source: The Economic Times
July 24, 2017. Uttar Pradesh (UP) Power Minister Srikant Sharma launched free power connection scheme for the BPL (Below Poverty Line) card holders in the state. Sharma said the scheme would also benefit the poor people who do not have BPL cards at present. Sharma said while the Centre had launched the free gas connection scheme for the poor, the Yogi Adityanath government in UP is giving free power connection to the same class of people. Sharma accused the previous government of not being “worried” about the poor.
Source: The Economic Times
July 21, 2017. The Central Electricity Authority (CEA) has started the process of identifying the actual power generation capacity of the country. This move follows the government’s own assessments that only 60 percent of the captive power plants (in terms of MW Capacity) submit data to CEA right now. The CEA said that despite being mandatory, all generating units in the country do not submit generation data to the CEA. Captive power plants of 1 MW and above capacity are also mandated to submit data regarding installed generating capacity and electricity generation to the CEA. Further, even in the case of some conventional power generating plants of Independent Power Producers, the information was only made available to CEA during the time of commissioning of the plant. In order to plug these diversions, the CEA has proposed a unique registration number for each generating unit.
Source: The Hindu Business Line
July 20, 2017. Under ‘name and shame’ drive, the Noida power department has released a list of 48 defaulters whose electricity bills outstanding is over and above Rs 50000 going up to Rs 12 lakh and more. The department plans to put a board outside their office/home premises against those defaulters whose bills remain to be paid despite a relief waiver of late payment charge from April 15 to July 4. The power department that till July 18 nearly 20 defaulters out of the 48 listed had cleared their bills. But still, 28 defaulters remain whose outstanding amount exceeds Rs 50,000 and above up to 11-12 lakhs. The department will begin the name and shame drive once the final list of defaulters is out, according to Paschimanchal Vidyut Vitaran Nigam Ltd (PVVNL). Currently, intimation has been sent to all 48 defaulters to clear their dues within a month. After that recovery through Tehsil will be undertaken.
Source: The Times of India
July 19, 2017. The Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd (MSEDCL) has formed six special squads to carry out power disconnection of defaulters and to expose electricity thefts in the city. The move has taken place in the wake of mounting electricity dues towards a section of consumers as well as fresh detection of power thefts using remote control and other new techniques. Each squad, which is to be headed by senior power utility official, will have three to four technical staffers from different sections such as meter-testing, filtering and quality control. The power utility has been bringing municipal councils from the region on radar, who owe hefty dues towards power consumption for street lights. Referring to recent cases of tampering with the electricity meter using remote-control, authorities said that the action has resulted in saving of a minimum Rs 21,000 per day towards power theft. Authorities have also appealed consumers to use online mode of bill payment. Out of 7,78,384 consumers from the zone, only around 10.46% have been using the online platform, it was said. Power utility has also appealed consumers to register their mobile number for availing multiple benefits. Consumers can register their mobile numbers through MSEDCL call centre by dialing toll-free number 1800-200-3435/1800-233-3435/1920. The registration can be also done using official Mobile App of the state power utility or by logging on to the official website www.mahadiscom.in, it was said.
Source: The Times of India
July 25, 2017. Tata Power Solar announced the commissioning of 2.67 MW solar carport at Cochin International Airport. The project comprised of putting together 8472 solar panels on 27 carports spread over 20289.9 square meters of area. The entire solar plant is aimed towards reducing 1868 tonnes of Carbon dioxide (CO2) annually. The grid-connected carport plant required high-level engineering and designing skills for assembling the massive carport structures. Additionally, advanced technology and design was of utmost importance to match and maintain the quality standards in place.
Source: The Economic Times
July 25, 2017. The Uttar Pradesh (UP) government has proposed to source 8 percent of its electricity requirements through renewable energy by 2022. According to the Draft UP Solar Power Policy-2017, the state government has also proposed to meet the target of generating 10,700 MW solar power. This includes 4,300 MW from rooftop solar projects, by financial year 2022. Under the proposed policy, the government will set up solar parks with a minimum capacity of 100 MW. The State, through the UP Power Corp Ltd (UPPCL) or the distribution licensee, will offer to purchase 100 percent of the power generated from a solar park. It will be mandatory to have at least 50 percent of the power generated from the parks to be sold to a UPPCL Distribution Licensee. These benefits will be extended to private solar park developers. A Central Financial Assistance (CFA) of ₹ 25 lakh for detailed project report for each solar park and ₹ 25 lakh per MW or 30 percent of project cost will be made available for the solar park. The state has also proposed to provide a subsidy of ₹ 10,000 per kilowatt to a maximum limit of subsidy ₹ 20,000 per consumer to encourage grid connected roof top solar set ups. The incentive will be available on a first-come, first served basis for the first 100 MW applications submitted to the Uttar Pradesh New and Renewable Energy Development Agency (UPNEDA). The subsidy will be disbursed to the beneficiary after successful installation and commissioning of rooftop solar systems with net metering. Electricity duty on solar power shall be exempted for sale to the distribution licensee for ten years.
Source: The Hindu Business Line
July 25, 2017. Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari has said the government aims to develop infrastructure for running all public transport on electricity. He said that the government is trying to develop an indigenous cost-effective and pollution-free public transport system. He said the government aims to develop infrastructure for running public transport to run on other alternate fuels. Gadkari said his ministry is working on a proposal with Niti Aayog to run buses on methanol.
Source: The Economic Times
July 25, 2017. The Uttar Pradesh (UP) government issued notice to six private companies, including Adani Green Energy, for delay in setting up solar power plants in UP. The decision was taken after the companies did not set up solar power plants, despite entering into an agreement for it, two years ago. UP Power Corp Ltd (UPPCL) issued the ‘Procure Preliminary Default’ notice to six companies, namely Adani Green Energy Ltd, Pinnacle Air Pvt Ltd, Awadh Rubber Prop, Madras Ilastomar Ltd, Sudhakar Infratech Private Ltd and Shastradhara Energy Private Ltd, seeking cancellation of their agreement with the New Energy Development Authority. UPPCL said the state government got into an agreement with 15 companies in 2015 under the solar power policy of 2013. Of these, nine installed solar power plants with a total capacity of 135 MW but six companies did not honour the agreement to install power plants with an aggregate capacity of 80 MW each. As per the agreement, the units were to supply solar power at the cost of Rs 7.02 to Rs 8.60 per unit. According to UPPCL, cost of solar panels reduced over time. UPPCL said cost of solar power fell to Rs 2.44 per unit because of reduction in prices of solar panels. Under such circumstances, the companies may not be allowed to set up power plants as per the previous arrangement, UPPCL said. Union ministry of new energy, through its letter, had asked the state government not to extend the deadline for installation of solar power projects.
Source: The Times of India
July 25, 2017. Bengal’s Department of Power and Non-Conventional Energy Sources has proposed providing access to solar power to the small islands in the state, with 30 to 50 families on each, in the Sundarbans Delta and other rivers. There are two major hindrances to providing power to these small islands from the conventional electrical grid. Firstly, it is a costly proposition, and secondly, the electrical poles are often uprooted due to floods and storms, which these islands in the Sundarbans are prone to. Solar panels would be fitted on the roofs of homes, and these would provide captive power for use by the household members. Initially, a private agency, to be chosen through a bidding process, is going to be given the responsibility of maintenance, which would then be passed on to the gram panchayats.
The Shillong Times
July 24, 2017. In the next two years, solar power will be cheaper than the electricity grid in the residential sector, says solar energy provider SunSource Energy which successfully implemented the first two phases of a 100 MW solar project in South East Asia. Stating that while the solar energy in India has already reached ‘grid parity’ in commercial, industrial and utility sectors, soon this would be achieved in residential sector as well. The grid parity happens when the cost of the electricity produced by an alternative source — solar in this case — becomes lesser or almost equal to that being supplied from the conventional source e.g coal. At present, India has installed capacity of 327 GW (One GW is equal to 1000 MW), of which about 40 GW is Solar (12 GW) and Wind energy (27 GW) combined. About 70 percent of power comes from coal-based power plants and the remaining from hydro and other sources like biogas. The solar company has designed and built over 100 solar projects across 18 states in India, with a focus on decentralised power projects. It is currently involved in nearly over 150 MW of solar projects in India and overseas.
Source: The Economic Times
July 24, 2017. At a time when most domestic solar manufacturers are struggling with idle capacity in the face of cheap solar cells and modules being imported from China, Noida-based Jakson Group is setting up a greenfield solar plant in a seemingly contrarian decision. It is investing Rs 650-700 crore in a new plant in Gujarat that will have a capacity of 1,000 MW of solar modules and 250 MW of solar cells in three years, Jakson Group said. The firm, which has a small 70 MW manufacturing plant in Greater Noida at present, is confident about competing with Chinese imports. Prices of Chinese solar cells and modules have dropped steeply in the last two years, but Gupta does not think they will do so any further. India’s domestic module manufacturing capacity is currently around 8,113 MW, out of which 5,286 MW are operational. However, actual manufacturing in 2016-17 was barely 1,000-1,500 MW, according to Mercom Capital Group that tracks the segment. That is because there is little demand for domestic products because Chinese imports are substantially cheaper. Around 90% of the modules used in Indian solar projects are imported, mostly from China. Indian solar manufacturers have even petitioned the ministry of commerce to impose anti-dumping duty on imported solar cells and modules in a desperate effort to stay afloat. One of the oldest of India’s power companies, Jakson Group, started in 1947, has ventured heavily into solar in the last few years, running 60 MW of ground mounted solar projects and 6.5 MW of solar rooftop. It will have put up around 450 MW of EPC solar projects by end 2017.
Source: The Economic Times
July 23, 2017. A Canara Bank-led consortium of lenders is scouting for a buyer for a 270 MW power plant in Maharashtra, which came under corporate debt restructuring plan. IDBI Capital Markets & Securities Ltd has invited an expression of interest to take over the thermal power project on behalf of the consortium of lenders led by Canara Bank. The company has set up a 270 MW coal based thermal power plant located in Nagpur, Maharashtra.
Source: Business Standard
July 22, 2017. In yet another move to make the company future ready, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) plans to invest in new sources of energy like renewable and in materials having multiple new applications. In refining and petrochemicals, Mukesh Ambani, chairman, RIL said the company’s goal is to be fully integrated producer of refining and petrochemical products serving the Indian and global markets. In petrochemicals, RIL’s Off-gas Cracker complex will be fully operational in a few weeks and production in less than six months from mechanical completion. The refinery Off-gas Cracker at Jamnagar is among the world’s largest and fully integrated crackers. The project was mechanically completed last quarter. Under the petroleum refining and marketing business, company’s Petcoke gasification project at Jamnagar has also made significant progress in the past year and is in an advanced stage of commissioning.
Source: The Financial Express
July 22, 2017. The Indian government’s vision to create 100 new smart cities to support the rapidly growing urban population could have a significant detrimental impact on the environment, a study has warned. Researchers led by Hugh Byrd, professor and a specialist in urban planning at the University of Lincoln, United Kingdom, said the detrimental environmental impact would increase at a greater rate than the population. They asked for greater emphasis to be placed on providing new supporting infrastructure and utilities, if the harmful impact was to be reduced. The study is based on an analysis of the environmental implications of the planned developments in Bhendi Bazaar — a 16.5-acre site in Mumbai — put forward as a flagship of the proposed new “smart” cities. According to the proposal, Bhendi Bazaar would see medium-rise housing (between three and five storeys) replaced with high-rise towers of 40 to 60 storeys, which the government had said is “sustainable, environmentally friendly and ‘smart'”. However, the research suggests that the resulting increase in population density was likely to place significant extra demands on resources, including electricity and water. The Bhendi Bazaar case study offers an example in terms of increased density, improved image and urban regeneration. However, it does not offer an answer to the problems of providing an adequate infrastructure to support the metabolism of such developments if they were to be significantly replicated, the study said.
Source: The Economic Times
July 21, 2017. India wanted to cap toxic emissions from power plants by December. It’s now discovering that target is at least 6 years from its reach. The nation’s power industry regulator said a countrywide roll out of equipment to lower sulfur dioxide emissions won’t be completed until 2023. And that’s only one of the four types of pollutants plants must cap. The Central Electricity Authority (CEA) has asked for the environment ministry’s December deadline to be extended, according to the CEA. The emission upgrades, estimated by an industry lobby group last year to cost as much as Rs 2.5 trillion ($38.8 billion), have been delayed as power companies battle stressed finances and are under pressure to reduce costs amid an increasingly competitive electricity market. The caps are meant to ease emissions from coal plants, which cause tens of thousands of premature deaths annually, according to a report published in 2013 by Greenpeace and Conservation Action Trust. The environment ministry in December 2015 set a two-year deadline for thermal power plants in India to cap emissions of particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and mercury. The regulations followed public criticism over growing air pollution choking Indian cities, including capital New Delhi.
Source: Bloomberg
July 20, 2017. The Raj Bhawan will plant 300 more saplings this month to neutralize its carbon footprint. Uttarakhand governor K K Paul said that an energy audit of Raj Bhawan was carried out to know how much energy is being used in running ACs and other appliances and to calculate the resulting carbon footprint. On the occasion of Harela, 50 saplings had been planted in Raj Bhawan. The governor said that 300 more saplings will be planted in July to neutralize the carbon footprint. Paul said that Harela was a cultural festival but held great significance in the context of environment preservation.
Source: The Times of India
July 20, 2017. India’s bullish plans to switch over completely to electric mobility by 2030 might have caught the eye of Tesla Motors chief electoral officer Elon Musk, but there are several issues that require the government’s intervention if this pipe dream needs to turn into reality. Retail sales of electric vehicles in India is almost negligible, despite both the Centre and some state governments subsidising the cost of these vehicles. Delhi, for instance, offers Rs 1.5 lakh additional subsidy over the Union government’s FAME benefit, yet adoption in the city by consumers remains low. Even if India manages to put in place all the infrastructure and policies to support fully electric mobility by 2030, the feasibility of the plan hinges a lot on the cost of lithium ion batteries. Today, batteries powering electric cars are the single most expensive part.
Source: Business Standard
July 20, 2017. The Ghaziabad Municipal Corp (GMC) has a green plan for the tonnes of civic waste generated in the city every day. The GMC plans to produce electricity from the waste in a waste-to-energy plant on a newly acquired 18-acre plot of land in Galand in the city’s first solid waste management plant. According to Ghaziabad municipal commissioner C P Singh, an expression of interest has been invited for the waste-to-energy plant. He said civic waste management has always been an issue in Ghaziabad and currently the Pratap Vihar landfill site, which was being used for dumping civic waste, is brimming with vast heaps of garbage. Singh said that currently the city generates about 1,200 to 1,300 metric tons of civic waste every day which is being dumped at the Pratap Vihar landfill site. The estimated cost of setting up of the waste-to-energy plant is Rs 160 crore and it will take two years to fully develop it.
Source: The Times of India
July 20, 2017. India has presented its national review report on the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to the United Nations (UN), underscoring that as the fastest growing major economy it is “uniquely placed” to deliver on its commitments. India’s ‘Voluntary National Review Report on Implementation of Sustainable Development Goals’ was presented by NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya at the United Nations high-level political forum on sustainable development in 2017. ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’, an ancient Indian phrase meaning ‘the world is one family’, pithily captures the spirit of India’s approach to all aspects of life including economic development. The report details various measures and programmes being implemented across India towards achieving the core objectives of the 17 ambitious global goals, including poverty eradication, economic growth, ending hunger and achieving food security, gender equality, promoting inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and climate action. It said that India has played an important role in shaping the SDGs and this has meant that the country’s national development goals are mirrored in the SDGs. India said it will continue to pursue the implementation of the SDG agenda through close collaboration between the national and sub-national governments as well as active participation of all other relevant stakeholders.
Source: The Economic Times
July 20, 2017. The Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has clarified that a guideline for procurement of renewable power through competitive bidding would be notified shortly by the Centre, the Haryana government said. Till then, projects may be set up under existing provisions of the Electricity Act, 2003 under section 62 wherein the State Regulatory Commission is to be approached for fixation of tariff, the government said. Haryana Renewable Energy Development Agency (HAREDA) said that after the notification, any project developer may set up a project for generation of renewable energy as per the bidding guideline if it qualifies for the same. HAREDA said that in the renewable energy policy of the Haryana government, there is a provision for setting up of renewable power projects by independent power producers on the site identified by them. For this, they have to submit their proposal along with detailed project report (DPR) to HAREDA.
Source: The Times of India
July 19, 2017. The government is hopeful that a new model regarding the use of biofuels and developed through indigenous technology would emerge in the coming days, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said. He said that efforts were being made by Indian scientists regarding the use of biofuels. As per the existing policy, ethanol for ethanol blended petrol (EBP) programme is procured from the molasses route by the public sector oil marketing companies. Ethanol production through molasses in the country for in 2016-17 is estimated to be 220 crore litres, he said.
Source: Business Standard
July 25, 2017. China’s foreign ministry has urged a halt to oil drilling in a disputed part of the South China Sea, where Spanish oil company Repsol had been operating in cooperation with Vietnam. Drilling began in mid-June in Vietnam’s Block 136/3, which is licensed to Vietnam’s state oil firm, Spain’s Repsol and Mubadala Development Co of the United Arab Emirates. The block lies inside the U-shaped ‘nine-dash line’ that marks the vast area that China claims in the sea and overlaps what it says are its own oil concessions.
Source: Reuters
July 25, 2017. Saudi Arabia wants to do more to boost crude oil prices by taking a razor to its exports, but the kingdom is already doing much of the heavy lifting in Asia, where it is surrendering market share in the world’s top importing region. Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said after a meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies that his country would limit crude oil exports to 6.6 million barrels per day (bpd) in August, almost 1 million bpd below levels a year ago. This commitment is belated recognition that OPEC and its non-OPEC allies, including Russia, have to do more than just comply with their November agreement to cut output by a combined 1.8 million bpd. For the output restrictions to work by draining global oil inventories, the producers will also have to curb exports. Vessel-tracking data and other service providers suggest that cuts to exports in the first half of 2017 by OPEC and its non-OPEC allies haven’t matched the reductions in stated output. However, data from Asia’s top two oil importers, China and India, show that Saudi Arabia is already taking much of the pain by cutting the amount of crude it supplies. China imported the equivalent of 8.56 million bpd of crude in the first half of 2017, up 13.8 percent on the same period a year earlier, according to calculations based on customs data. Of this Saudi Arabia supplied 1.07 million bpd, a gain of just 0.5 percent over the first half of 2016. This meant that Saudi Arabia, which was China’s top supplier in 2015 and was only just pipped by Russia last year, has now slipped to third.
Source: Reuters
July 24, 2017. Global oil demand could peak as early as 2024 if there are more efficiency gains in vehicles, greater market penetration by electric cars, lower economic growth and higher fuel prices, Goldman Sachs said in a research note on refining. Economic expansion in emerging markets – led by India – may stave off reaching a peak until 2030, although demand growth will still slow over the next decade given improving mileage in cars and trucks and the greater use of electric vehicles, research analysts from the investment bank said. The global electric fleet, for instance, is expected to grow more than 40-fold to 83 million vehicles by 2030, from 2 million in 2016, the researchers said in the note. Goldman Sachs projects annual oil demand growth between 2017 and 2022 at 1.2 percent, slowing to 0.7 percent by 2025 and to 0.4 percent in 2030. Oil demand grew by an annual average rate of 1.6 percent over 2011 to 2016. Over the period to 2030, the transport sector will contribute less to oil demand growth. Petrochemicals will instead become more central, although with more feedstock coming from outside the refining system, such as from natural gas liquids, refiners’ share in oil demand will fall, they said. The analysts also said there will likely be a surplus of refined oil products for the next five years due to higher capacity additions and slowing demand growth, implying lower global utilization rates and poorer margins. The impending 2020 global sulphur limit set by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) on high sulphur fuel oil is also expected to reshape the refining industry, the bank’s analysts said. If fully implemented, the limit will boost diesel demand and widen the sweet-sour crude differential, which is positive for the profitability of complex refineries, they said. Meanwhile, jet fuel and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) are gaining market share at the expense of products like fuel oil. Demand growth for LPG, fastest among all oil products, is being driven by petrochemicals and use in India as a cooking fuel in homes, the analysts said. The share held by gasoline and diesel in the overall oil demand mix between 2016 and 2030 will stagnate, they said.
Source: Reuters
July 24, 2017. The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP), the largest privately owned crude terminal in the United States (US), is pursuing contracts to export crude from its US Gulf Coast facility, the company said. Until now, LOOP has taken imported oil at the facility and the new services would be its first for exports. The services could be available by early 2018, LOOP said.
Source: Reuters
July 24, 2017. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) Energy Minister Suhail bin Mohammed al-Mazroui said it was too early to talk about additional cuts to oil output. The Minister said global oil demand is expected to rise in the second half of 2017 and that any increase in shale oil production in a short period would hurt oil markets.
Source: Reuters
July 23, 2017. Energy markets might need to be regulated to put a brake on widespread financial speculation that is distorting crude prices, Italian oil major Eni CEO (chief executive officer) Claudio Descalzi said. Descalzi said OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) and Saudi Arabia were not in a position to push prices higher by cutting output, adding that geopolitical tensions, growing US shale oil production and heavy speculation in crude futures were hurting the sector. He said hedge fund speculators no longer believed that the OPEC was in a position to introduce radical output cuts. Six OPEC and non-OPEC ministers are due to meet in St Petersburg to discuss the market outlook and review a global pact on reducing crude supplies that was agreed this year.
Source: Reuters
July 23, 2017. Kuwait’s Oil Minister Essam al-Marzouq said that compliance with oil production cuts by OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) and non-OPEC countries is good and that deeper cuts are possible. Ministers from the OPEC and other non-OPEC producers will meet in the Russian city of St Petersburg to discuss the pact on cuts, which was reached earlier this year. Marzouq said that a technical committee of OPEC and non-OPEC countries had heard and was happy with reports from Libya and Nigeria, and that discussions would continue.
Source: Reuters
July 22, 2017. The United States (US) is considering financial sanctions on Venezuela that would halt dollar payments for the country’s oil. The move could severely restrict the OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) nation’s crude exports and starve its socialist government of hard currency. Sanctions prohibiting any transaction in US currency by Venezuela’s state-run oil firm, PDVSA, are among the toughest of various oil-related measures under discussion at the White House. The US measures under discussion are similar to those that were imposed against Iran over its nuclear program – which halved Iran’s oil exports and prevented top crude buyers from paying for Iranian oil. The US bought 780,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Venezuelan crude and refined products in the first four months of 2017, according to the Energy Information Administration, nearly 8 percent of total imports. PDVSA is a major supplier to Valero Energy, Phillips 66, Chevron Corp and PBF Energy. PDVSA’s cash flow has plummeted in recent years, in part due to the Venezuelan government’s deals to barter its oil to other nations in exchange for fuels, services and loans.
Source: Reuters
July 20, 2017. PetroChina is unloading the first Chinese purchase of crude oil from US (United States) strategic petroleum reserves at a port in eastern China, according to shipping data. The move comes as China, the world’s No.2 oil consumer, steps up imports from the Americas to diversify supply sources. PetroChina unit, PetroChina International America Inc, bought the 550,000-barrel cargo of Bryan Mound sour crude in a sale from US strategic petroleum reserves in March for $28.8 million. Supertanker Cosrising Lake, chartered by PetroChina, is unloading the US oil at Qingdao port in Shandong province, shipping data showed. PetroChina is one of the key players moving Americas crude to Asia. It recently sold India that country’s first US crude import via an Indian Oil Corp tender.
Source: Reuters
July 19, 2017. Russia is ready to continue working with OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) to help rebalance oil markets. Moscow welcomed a flexible approach by OPEC’s leader Saudi Arabia to accommodate rising output from Nigeria and Libya. Output from Nigeria and Libya has reached a multi-year high in recent weeks, delaying a long-awaited oil market rebalancing.
Source: Reuters
July 25, 2017. Malaysian oil company Petronas has scrapped a proposed C$36 billion ($29 billion) liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in western Canada due to weak prices, in a blow to both its global ambitions and Canada’s hopes of becoming a major LNG player. Pacific NorthWest LNG in British Columbia was meant to produce 12 megatonnes per year and spur further development of Canada’s largest shale play, but industry observers said the move was widely expected given years of delay. Analysts had been skeptical about the project’s prospects given current low gas prices and constraints facing state-run Petronas, which has been cutting costs to deal with lower profits and cash flow. The decision is the latest setback for Canada’s energy industry, already bruised by international oil firms selling off around $23 billion in Canadian energy assets this year alone. Pacific NorthWest LNG received approval from the Canadian government last year, but Petronas delayed its final investment decision on what would have been its biggest foreign investment. Petronas had planned to produce its own gas to supply Pacific NorthWest LNG, rather than buying it from other producers, but no LNG demand means firms like Painted Pony Petroleum and Seven Generations Energy will continue to see low gas prices, analysts said.
Source: Reuters
July 24, 2017. Greece’s privatisation agency HRADF said it had extended the deadline for submission of expressions of interest in natural gas grid operator DESFA to August 7. Greece is seeking a buyer for a 66 percent stake in the grid under a privatisation scheme it has agreed with international lenders. Greek authorities relaunched the privatisation process for DESFA after a deal with Azerbaijan’s SOCAR fell through in 2016. That deal collapsed after Athens passed legislation raising DESFA’s gas tariffs by a lower amount than SOCAR had expected. The agency is selling its 31 percent stake in DESFA and Greece’s biggest oil refiner, Hellenic Petroleum, is divesting the rest.
Source: Reuters
July 20, 2017. A plan by top global liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporter Qatar to ramp up output will stall the expected growth of US (United States) LNG exports, Australia’s Woodside Petroleum CEO (chief executive officer) Peter Coleman said. Qatar surprised rivals this month when it lifted a self-imposed ban on development of the North Field, the world’s biggest natural gas field, saying it would boost LNG output by 30 percent to 100 million tonnes a year in five to seven years. That put it on course to it wrest back the title of the world’s top LNG exporter from Australia, which is set to overtake Qatar in the next two years. Qatar’s expansion plan will compete directly with Woodside, which is looking to develop the Browse and Scarborough fields off Western Australia within the next decade – its so-called Horizon 2 projects – by processing gas through the North West Shelf plant or other existing facilities. Projects that will find it harder to compete will be those that need billions of dollars in new infrastructure and coal seam gas-to-LNG projects that need continuous capital spending to drill new wells, he said. The International Energy Agency forecast the US would become the world’s second largest LNG exporter by the end of 2022, but Coleman said the Qatari expansion would stymie that growth. US LNG flows largely into the Atlantic market, where it competes against pipeline gas from Russia and Norway.
Source: Reuters
July 24, 2017. Coal prices’ march to eight-month highs, driven by China’s huge appetite for power consumption, looks like an interlude in a longer-term decline and is seen losing traction later this year. Asia’s benchmark physical coal prices have gained more than a third from lows seen in May to nearly $98 per ton, while European benchmark API2 2018 coal futures are at eight-month highs of around $74 a ton. China had cut coal capacity by 111 million tonnes by the end of June, representing 74 percent of its target for this year. Analysts expect average futures prices to fall to $60-$70/ton in the third and fourth quarters of this year and $50-$65/ton in the first quarter of next year. China plans to add 200 million tonnes of new coal mining capacity this year, in addition to the 90 million tonnes already added in the first half of this year. In January, the National Development and Reforms Commission said it wanted Chinese coal prices to trade in a range of 500-570 yuan a ton, and would take action if they were outside this.
Source: Reuters
July 23, 2017. China’s Hebei province will likely meet its annual target for reducing coal capacity by the end of September. Hebei, China’s top steel producing province, expects to cut 12.38 million tonnes of coal capacity this year, well above its initial target of 7.42 million tonnes. China plans to cut 150 million tonnes of coal capacity in 2017 as part of efforts to tackle choking pollution. The National Development and Reform Commission said the country had cut coal capacity by 111 million tonnes by end-June.
Source: Reuters
July 21, 2017. China’s power consumption is expected to hit a fresh peak this summer, surpassing a record hit, state economic planner the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said. China will boost its inventory of thermal coal at major ports to ensure power supply, NDRC said. Power consumption rose 6.3 percent in the first half of this year, NDRC said.
Source: Reuters
July 21, 2017. PGE will close its 858 MW unit at Belchatow power plant on July 31 to conduct planned maintenance until October 7, Poland’s biggest power group PGE said. The Belchatow unit is the world’s biggest brown coal fuelled power plant and one of Europe’s largest polluters. The outage will coincide with a planned major repair at a 560 MW unit operated by Enea which began and will last until December.
Source: Reuters
July 25, 2017. Royal Dutch Shell and SoftBank are among several global groups considering bidding for Equis Energy, Asia’s largest independent renewable energy producer valued at up to $5 billion. Japanese trading companies, global pension funds and buyout firms are also in the fray to buy Singapore-based Equis at a time when many Asian governments are expanding the use of renewable power and its costs are falling. First-round bids for Equis are due. Equis owns a portfolio of 97 projects comprising solar, wind and hydro generation assets spread across countries including Japan, India, Philippines and Australia.
Source: Reuters
July 24, 2017. The San Diego County Water Authority (SDCWA) has issued a Request for Proposals for a potential joint energy storage project with the City of San Diego, California (United States). Bids are requested by 12 September 2017. The 500 MW power project would be used off-peaks and would help California meet its target to procure 50% of its energy from renewable energy sources by 2030.
Source: Enerdata
July 21, 2017. Japan’s Yokohama city will participate in a trial project that demonstrates the building of a low-carbon hydrogen supply chain model using renewable energy in the Tokyo and Yokohama coastal region. The project will use electricity generated from the Hama Wing wind power plant near the center of Yokohama to create hydrogen. The production equipment using wind power will achieve zero carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions while the hydrogen energy storage will use reusable batteries of hybrid vehicles to store energy, so it can be built with care for the environment.
Source: The Economic Times
July 20, 2017. China’s solar industry is expected to produce 25 percent more panels in 2017 than last year, supported by domestic sales and demand from the United States (US) and emerging markets, Wang Bohua, secretary general of China’s photovoltaic industry association, said. China was expected to produce solar panels with a combined capacity of 60 GW this year, Wang said. China produced panels with capacity of 48 GW in 2016. Despite growing global demand, China’s solar industry faced challenges ranging from possible tariffs abroad to inadequate grid connections at home, Wang said. The US has told the World Trade Organization it was considering putting emergency “safeguard” tariffs on imported solar cells, a move aimed at shielding its industry from a damaging, unforeseen surge in imports. Environment group Greenpeace said solar curtailment rates across China rose 50 percent in 2015 and 2016, with more than 30 percent of available power in north-western province Gansu and Xinjiang failing to reach the grid.
Source: Reuters
July 20, 2017. Germany connected 626 MW of newly built offshore wind capacity to power grids in the first six months of this year and expects to see total installations of 900 MW in the full year, five industry groups, engineering body VDMA, wind energy group BWE, wind energy agency wab, the Offshore Windenergie Foundation and Group for Offshore Wind, said. The installed total is now 4,729 MW and if 900 MW were achieved, it would exceed the 818 MW added in 2016. The rate of expansion could mean the industry will beat government targets of 6,500 MW for 2020, they said.
Source: Reuters
| State/UT |
Electricity Generation from Wind (Million Units) 2016-17 (April-January) |
Installed Capacity of Electricity Generation from Wind (MW) As on 31.10.2016 |
| Rajasthan | 4857.24 | 4123 |
| Gujarat | 6578.73 | 4270 |
| Madhya Pradesh | 3015.17 | 2289 |
| Maharashtra | 6950.36 | 4664 |
| Andhra Pradesh | 2769.94 | 2001 |
| Telangana | 183.69 | 99 |
| Karnataka | 5411.24 | 3099 |
| Kerala | 66.43 | 43.5 |
| Tamil Nadu | 11153.53 | 7686 |
| Others | 173.57 | – |
| Total | 41159.91 | 28274.5 |
Share of Wind Power in Total Renewable Electricity Generation [2016-17 (April-January)]
BU: Billion Units; 1 Unit = 1 kWh; MW: Megawatt
Source: Compiled from Rajya Sabha Un-starred Questions & MNRE
Publisher: Baljit Kapoor
Editorial advisor: Lydia Powell
Editor: Akhilesh Sati
Content development: Vinod Kumar Tomar
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