Energy News Monitor | Volume XI; Issue 22

[Correcting Global Imbalances: The Role of Oil Trade]

                             “Given that half of US trade deficit is made up of energy imports, increase in domestic production and falling imports have shrunk and continue to shrink this deficit rapidly. On the other hand energy imports were eating into China’s surpluses.  Russia’s energy exports had given it a trade surplus but as a percent of GDP its trade surplus showed a declining trend…”

 

NEWS BRIEF

[NATIONAL: OIL & GAS]

November 10, 2014. Oil explorer Cairn Energy has made a second oil discovery off the coast of Senegal. The British-based energy firm, which currently has no producing assets, said it had found oil at its SNE-1 well around 100 kilometres off the coast of the west African country. The well, located near its FAN-1 well where it found oil, could hold 150-670 million barrels of recoverable resources, Cairn said. Analysts said the two successful oil discoveries could provide Cairn with an option to sell parts of its 40 percent stake to raise cash for its 2015 exploration work in northwest Europe and Morocco. Cairn is the operator and 40-percent owner of three blocks off the coast of Senegal, while other stakeholders include oil major ConocoPhillips, which owns 35 percent. The oil explorer has been unable to tap its $1 billion stake in Cairn India, a business whose backdated taxation practices are being investigated by Indian authorities. (in.reuters.com)

November 9, 2014. Upstream oil regulator DGH has approved commerciality of the oil and gas discoveries in the northern area of ONGC's prolific KG-D5 block in Bay of Bengal. Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has so far made 11 oil and gas discoveries in the Krishna Godavari basin block KG-DWN-98/2 or KG-D5 which sits next to Reliance Industries' KG-D6 area. The discoveries in KG-D5 are divided into northern and southern areas, with the former having a total of 10 finds and the later the ultra-deep UD-1 discovery. ONGC had divided these and a couple of finds in a neighbouring block, into three clusters. The gas discoveries D and E in the northern part of KG-D5 will be brought to production together with G-4 find in a neighbouring KG block at an investment of $1.92 billion. The remaining eight discoveries in the Northern Development Area (NDA) will be brought to production as Cluster-II.

The Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH), the technical advisory arm of the Oil Ministry on upstream oil and gas exploration and production issues, has approved the Declaration of Commerciality (DoC) of Cluster-II. Over $4.07 billion is planned to be invested in bringing to production the Cluster-II finds. NDA holds a total inplace reserves of 78 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas and another 121 million tons of oil. The Southern Development Area, compromising of UD-1 find, has a total inplace gas reserves of 80.8 bcm. Cluster-I is likely to start production in 2017 with over 8.5 million standard cubic meters per day (mmscmd) of output, which will peak to 14.5 mmscmd in two years thereafter begin to slide. This cluster will remain in production for 15 years. From Cluster-II, ONGC will produce over 90,000 barrels per day of oil (4.5 million tons a year) from 2019. This set of discoveries would also give a gas output of 11.09 mmscmd in the first year and touching a peak of 18 mmscmd in the second year. (economictimes.indiatimes.com)

November 11, 2014. Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) may pick up 8 per cent stake in Petronet LNG Ltd's ` 5,000 crore liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal at Gangavaram in Andhra Pradesh. The Viskhapatnam refinery of HPCL, which is only a few kilometers away from Gangaravam port, is being expanded to 15 million tonnes per annum from current 8.33 million tonnes and the expanded unit will have a gas requirement of close to 2.5-3 million standard cubic meters per day. Andhra Pradesh government too has evinced interest and is likely to get 5 per cent stake, leaving Petronet with 69 per cent shareholding. Years ago, HPCL had missed the LNG bus when it got left out of the PSU consortium that formed Petronet. Indian Oil, ONGC, GAIL and Bharat Petroleum each have 12.5 per cent stake in Petronet. GAIL India Ltd has evinced interest in booking half of the 5 million tonnes a year import capacity of the proposed terminal. The Gangavaram project received all approvals of the state government only last month, a good one-and-half-year behind schedule, and Petronet is now looking to build an import facility by 2018. This will be Petroent's first import facility on the east coast. It already has a 10 million tonnes a year terminal at Dahej in Gujarat and a 5 million tonnes unit at Kochi in Kerala. Petronet is expanding Dahej to 15 million tonnes by end of 2016 and plans to add another 2.5 million tonnes capacity at a cost of about ` 1,100 crore. (economictimes.indiatimes.com)

November 5, 2014. Indian Oil Corp (IOC) has taken a mega insurance cover of ` 5,000 crore for each of its 10 refineries, potentially setting a new benchmark for other domestic oil refinery companies. In a deal signed recently, insurers led by United Insurance have agreed to cover damages up to ` 5,000 crore per refinery if the company faces business interruption for more than 60 days. Business interruption insurance covers loss of income that the company suffers after shutting plants or facilities due to a disaster. One of few Indian companies listed in Fortune 500, IOC operates refineries spread across the country with combined refining capacity of 65.7 mmtpa (million metric tonnes per annum). According to insurance industry, IOC renewed its cover with insurance companies led by United Insurance that will cover damage resulting from fire or any natural calamity, loss of profit occurring due to business interruption and any other damage to its property, plant and machinery. However, loss limit - the initial loss incurred due to the damage to the property and which is borne by the company - is pegged at ` 5 crore. The co-insurers include New India Assurance, National Insurance and Oriental Insurance. (economictimes.indiatimes.com)

November 6, 2014. Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (ONGC) and Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) are the only two Indian companies that disclose tax payments in almost all the foreign countries where they operate, according to a report by Transparency International India (TII). According to a report, the world's biggest companies disclose little or no financial details about their operations outside their home country. Ninety of the 124 companies assessed do not disclose the taxes they pay in foreign countries, while 54 disclose no information on their revenues in other countries, it said. Only BHP Billiton, Statoil and Indian firms ONGC and Reliance Industries disclose tax payments in almost all the foreign countries where they operate, the report said. ONGC and RIL have performed well. ONGC is the first PSU to adopt IP by entering into MoU with TII. RIL is ranked at ninth position, while ONGC is at 26^th place among the 124 companies list. RIL has scored 5.6 out of ten, while ONGC has scored 4.8, as per the report. The report, Transparency in Corporate Reporting, analysed 124 companies from the Forbes list of the world's biggest publicly-traded companies. The companies, whose combined market value is more than USD 14 trillion, are ranked on the basis of their reporting of the measures they take to prevent corruption, information about subsidiaries and holdings and key financial information about overseas operations. (economictimes.indiatimes.com)

November 6, 2014. Reliance Industries, along with its partner Pioneer Natural Resources Co, plan to divest their joint venture (JV) company Eagle Ford Shale Midstream Business. US-based Pioneer Natural Resources, which holds 50.1% in the JV and is operator of the project, said that the divestment is part of its strategy to focus more on its shale gas explorations business. Reliance group, which holds 49.9% in the JV through arm Reliance Holding USA, is also pursuing sale of its stake. The Midstream business of Eagle Ford owns and runs 10 gathering plants and around 460 miles of pipelines. The JV, which was formed in 2010, is likely to generate $100 million in cash flow in 2015. Besides, its stake in Eagle Ford, RIL owns stakes in two more shale ventures in the US. RIL owns 40% in Chevron's Marcellus shale asset and 60% in and asset of the Carrizo Oil and Gas Inc in Central and Northeast Pennsylvania. (economictimes.indiatimes.com)

November 5, 2014. GAIL India Ltd said it slashed gas supplies to small industries in Gujarat on Oil Ministry orders. Small industries in South Gujarat, which were forced to shut few lines in their plants following GAIL cutting supplies of administered price mechanism (APM) gas, have accused the state-owned firm of arbitrariness and selective targeting as supplies to similar units in other states have not been touched. The company, however, did not respond to claims that small industries were included in priority sector along with power and fertilizer and no subsequent order has changed that. Also, the ministry guidelines do not define non-priority industries. The company said emphasis is being given to protect the interest of small customers (those presently having allocation of domestic gas up to 50,000 standard cubic meters per day). GAIL said the changes had also impacted gas supplies to its own petrochemical plant, which is undergoing a cut of up to 88 per cent. GAIL said based on the Ministry directive, supplies of APM gas to non-priority sector customers have been curtailed by 3-4 million standard cubic meters per day (mmscmd). For South Gujarat customers, this is to the tune of 0.3-0.4 mmscmd. (economictimes.indiatimes.com)

November 11, 2014. Prime Minister Narendra Modi thrust India into an increasingly high-stakes game of wooing Myanmar's generals, dangling before the strategically critical nation a bouquet of economic promises at a time it is trying to wean itself away from its overarching dependence on China.

India has over the past decade been worrying about Myanmar's growing proximity to China, the largest investor in the country and its heftiest trading partner. The southern and western regions of Myanmar are rich in oil and natural gas, and China has built a pipeline that funnels these resources from fields in regions where locals often don't have electricity of their own. (www.telegraphindia.com)

November 10, 2014. Is auctioning of energy resources the best way to increase production? The experience of India’s hydrocarbon sector would certainly prove to the contrary. After 15 years and 9 rounds of auctions under the New Exploration and Licensing Policy (NELP), the country has managed to award 260 hydrocarbon blocks to the private sector. However, only three of the discoveries have actually started commercial production. This is the reason why India imports 75 per cent of its fuel requirements accounting for one third of India’s import bill at $168 billion (` 102,480 lakh crore) in 2013-14. Out of the three blocks under production, one is under arbitration where the contractor is accused of misrepresenting the investment figures with the government levying a penalty of over $2 billion on the contractor for not producing the projected quantity of gas.

The newly elected NDA government, like in other sectors, has decided to overhaul the hydrocarbon policy in the country, even though the recommendations were prepared by a committee appointed during the Congress-led UPA government. The government has prepared a draft Model Revenue Sharing Contract (MRSC), which seeks to fill up the loopholes of the previous hydrocarbon policy and create a more conducive and competitive environment to attract foreign companies to invest money in India’s hydrocarbon basins.

The government has prepared an uniform policy for the hydrocarbon sector this time. The NELP policy was only for the Oil and gas. Other hydrocarbon resources like CBM and shale gas were governed by separate policies. Merger of all policies into one was being demanded by the industry for many years. The new policy proposes a model that does not allow cost recovery of investments. Rather the company will have to indicate the quantity of oil and gas it will share with the government at different stages of production as well as at different rates. Under the newly proposed model, the government’s share of revenue will be determined through production price matrix. (www.businessworld.in)

November 10, 2014. In a setback to non-state LPG marketeers, the government's top law officer has ruled that all domestically produced cooking gas (LPG) should necessarily be sold to PSUs for subsidised sale to consumers. Ranjit Kumar, Solicitor General of India (SGI), the nation's second highest law offer, has upheld oil ministry view that sale of LPG by domestic producers to anyone other than state-owned oil marketing companies (OMCs) is not permissible under LPG Control Order. He said non-state LPG sellers, called parallel marketeers, cannot source the fuel from domestic refiners. They have to import LPG if they intend to sell the cooking fuel in domestic market.

Kumar in his opinion upheld ministry's view that parallel marketeer's distribution/sale in the domestic market could only be of imported LPG subject to conditions prescribed in the LPG Control Order. While India is surplus in refining capacity, it does not produce enough LPG to meet all of its demand. LPG is produced by both public sector firms like Indian Oil Corp (IOC) as well as private firms like Reliance Industries. This LPG is sold to consumer mostly through distributors appointed by government at subsidised rates. Reliance Industries, the largest single location LPG producer in the country, had last year contested the ministry view saying rules do not mandate that all domestic LPG must be sold only to state firms. It had allegedly sold the cooking gas produced at its Jamangar, Hazira and Patalganga plants to retail customers.

The SGI on ministry's query on what action should be initiated against those LPG producer who had sold LPG in parallel market, said the action should be in accordance with the law. The SGI said the LPG Control Order of 2000 defines parallel marketeer as someone who is carrying on business of importing, storing, transporting, marketing and distributing of LPG. It does not prohibit the parallel marketeer from producing LPG but it cannot sell such production directly to consumers. The LPG Order nowhere permits the domestically produced LPG to be sold by a parallel marketeer, who is a person other than a government oil company, and that such parallel marketeer could only distribute/sell imported LPG. (economictimes.indiatimes.com)

November 10, 2014. The Oil Ministry has sought over ` 8,183 crore cash subsidy to make good one-third of the losses that retailers like Indian Oil Corp (IOC) incurred on selling diesel and cooking fuel below cost in the September quarter. IOC, Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) had reported a revenue loss of about ` 24,563 crore in the July-September quarter. Of this, upstream oil and gas producers -- ONGC, Oil India Ltd and GAIL India Ltd will make good ` 16,379.55 crore and the rest ` 8,183.33 crore is being sought from the government as cash subsidy, the ministry said.

Fuel retailers sold diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene at government-controlled rates which are below market price in Q2. The loss they thus incur is made good through cash subsidy from the government and dole from upstream firms like ONGC. Of the upstream compensation, Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) will provide ` 13,641.25 crore, OIL ` 2,238.30 and gas utility GAIL ` 500 crore. GAIL has already declared its second quarter earnings without accounting for the subsidy payout and will now have to make adjustments. IOC will get ` 9,097.81 crore from upstream firms, HPCL ` 3,750.95 crore and BPCL ` 3,530.79 crore.

During the April-June period, the three fuel retailers cumulatively lost ` 28,690.74 crore on diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene. Of this, the upstream firms met ` 15,546.65 crore or 54 per cent of the under-recovery or revenue loss. The government gave cash subsidy of ` 11,000 crore. Of the upstream share, ONGC chipped in ` 13,200.10 crore, OIL ` 1,846.55 crore while the share of GAIL was ` 500 crore. Diesel price has since been regulated and the government will from the third quarter not provide any subsidy on the fuel. Only domestic LPG and kerosene remain to be subsidised. Petrol prices were deregulated in June 2010. (economictimes.indiatimes.com)

November 7, 2014. The new gas price of $5.61 per unit will not be adequate to attract investment in exploration as most discoveries in deep-sea need a higher rate to be economically viable, top research organisations have said. While deepwater producers want to produce and sell -- albeit at gas price upwards of $8 -- industrial consumers are willing to pay for these productions, but due to the limit imposed by the current pricing formula, they will have to buy costly imported LNG. Stating that the 33 per cent increase in gas price from November 1 was negative for new upstream investment, Nomura said the key reason and need behind revising the gas price was to encourage upstream investment by monetising existing discoveries and further encouraging exploration for more gas.

Deutsche Bank said the lack of clarity on gas price for new deepwater discoveries -- which will be higher -- could delay capex and production. Credit Suisse said $5.6 may work for Reliance Industries' R-Series gas field in the KG-D6 block but the economics for its satellite fields and NEC-25 block are uncertain. Nomura said there is no clarity yet on the likely premium for new discoveries in deep-sea and ultra deep waters and so the pace of further exploration will also remain slow. India's gas deficit is unlikely to improve over the next 5-6 years, implying that reliance on imported LNG is unlikely to abate, CIMB said. HSBC said while the hike imposes a higher price on the end consumer, it is unlikely to result in investment beyond what the upstream industry would have invested anyway at the old gas price of $4.2 per million British thermal unit (mmBtu). (economictimes.indiatimes.com)

November 7, 2014. The oil ministry may direct users of gas produced from the Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL)-operated KG-D6 block to pay the old rate of $4.20 per unit to the producer and deposit $1.41 per unit in a gas pool account operated by Gail India from this month.

The Cabinet approved a policy under which the domestic gas price went up from $4.20 per unit to $5.61 from November 1. It also said RIL will get the old rate of $4.20 per unit from its producing D6 fields pending the final outcome of arbitration and legal proceedings, while consumers will pay $5.61 per unit. As the Cabinet has not specified who would collect the difference, the thinking in the oil ministry is that customers should continue to pay the old price to RIL and deposit the balance $1.41 per unit directly in the GAIL-operated gas pool account. (economictimes.indiatimes.com)

November 7, 2014. The power ministry has worked out a plan to pool the existing limited supply of domestic gas with imported regasified liquefied petroleum gas to help operationalise stranded gas-based power plants with a cumulative capacity of 16,107 MW. The proposal has been forwarded to the petroleum ministry. If implemented, the move will lead to an additional generation of 39,000 million units of power valued at ` 25,000 crore annually.

The Union Cabinet could take up the matter soon for discussion. India has 21,211 MW of gas-based power capacity commissioned. An additional 5,900 MW is likely to be commissioned soon. Of this, 16,107 MW is stranded including 6,997 MW based on KG-D6 allocation and 3,761 MW commissioned without gas allocation. According to the proposal, GAIL India will be the pool operator and will supply the fuel to power stations at an average pooled price of domestic and imported gas. According to the plan, states might have to waive value-added tax (VAT) on incremental gas, gas transporters such as GAIL and Reliance Gas Transportation will be asked to cut pipeline tariff by up to 20 per cent, GAIL would have to cut marketing margin by half. The government had announced raising the price of gas from domestic fields by 33 per cent to $5.6 a unit from November 1. (www.business-standard.com)

November 6, 2014. The government will begin roadshows to attract investors to the planned 5 per cent stake sale in Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) from November 17. Roadshows will be held in Singapore, Hong Kong, London, New York and Boston. The government has not yet firmed up a timeline for the stake sale that at current rate will fetch it over ` 17,200 crore. Citigroup, HSBC Securities, UBS Securities, ICICI Securities and Kotak Mahindra Capital are managing the sale. Government, which holds 68.94 per cent stake in ONGC, is selling 42.77 crore or 5 per cent of its holding. The roadshows will end by last week of November and the stake sale can happen immediately after that or in the first half of December. The government is keen to appoint three new independent directors on the board of ONGC before the roadshows. (economictimes.indiatimes.com)

November 6, 2014. India's natural gas deficit and its reliance on imports will continue as the just announced gas pricing policy with its low rates and lack of roadmap to free pricing may not revitalise near stagnant exploration and production, a research report said. Existing gas discoveries in deep-sea areas of Bay of Bengal are not viable at the new gas price of $ 5.61 per million British thermal unit, which is just 33 per cent higher than old rate of $ 4.2, it said. Besides raising price of gas from existing fields, the government had also announced that a yet-to-be- determined premium will be paid for new discoveries in deepwater and difficult projects. (economictimes.indiatimes.com)

November 6, 2014. Iran has promised that it will supply natural gas at $2.85 per unit if India builds a fertiliser plant in the Gulf country, Road Transport & Highways, Shipping and Rural Development Minister Nitin Gadkari said. India, which plans to develop Iran's Chabahar Port, could build a fertiliser plant there and import urea, which will be 50% cheaper than its domestic output, Gadkari said.

The Cabinet had cleared a proposal to form a joint venture company that would develop the Chahbahar port. The decision was taken after the West softened economic sanctions against Iran. Gadkari said India plans to develop the port in about 18 months, which would be used to import crude oil and urea. The port, which is located in the southeast Iran, is strategic as it would help India to bypass Pakistan while transporting goods from the Gulf country through Afghanistan. The two countries will sign an agreement for development of the port soon. India may get lease of two berths at Chabahar for 10 years. The proposed joint venture would develop a container and multi-purpose cargo terminal. Iran's Chahbahar port is located in the Sistan-Baluchistan province on its south-eastern coast. It lies outside the Persian Gulf and is easily accessed from India's west coast.

India paid Iran $500 million to clear a part of its past dues for crude oil it buys from the Persian Gulf nation. The payment made was in addition to $400 million India paid. Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) paid about $217 million and almost an equal amount was paid by private sector Essar Oil. The remaining amount was mostly paid by Indian Oil Corp (IOC). The $900 million payment in two weeks is on top of $1.65 billion the refiners had paid in June/July. Cumulatively, refiners owe about USD 6 billion to Iran. MRPL had paid about $183 million, Essar Oil $172 million, IOC $ 41 million and Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) $4 million. The United States and five other world powers had in July granted Iran access to $2.8 billion of its funds held in foreign banks. This was in addition to $4.2 billion Iran had received between January and July. Of the $2.8 billion, $900 million was to come from India. (economictimes.indiatimes.com)

November 5, 2014. The government plans to sell a 5 percent stake in energy explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) in the last week of November or the first week of December. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has introduced long-awaited reforms in the oil sector, freeing diesel prices and raising natural gas prices - measures which should be positive for ONGC and other oil marketing companies. Presentations to investors on the share sale, worth about $2.8 billion at current market prices, are likely to start from Nov. 17 and will run for about a week. The share sale is part of the government's plan to raise a record $9.5 billion via asset sales in the current financial year through March 2015 to help plug its fiscal deficit. The government has appointed five banks - Citigroup, HSBC Securities, ICICI Securities, UBS Securities and Kotak Mahindra Capital - to manage the sale. In 2012, the government sold 5 percent of ONGC to raise about 140 billion rupees. It retains about 69 percent of the company. ONGC, the country's biggest oil explorer, plans to raise overseas output in two stages to 60 million tonnes of oil plus oil-equivalent gas by 2030, or 1.2 million barrels a day. After oil sector reforms, ONGC's share of subsidies is expected to fall substantially this year. (in.reuters.com)

 [NATIONAL: POWER]

November 7, 2014. NTPC Ltd said it is in the process of setting up power projects with a combined capacity of 9,000 MW in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The company is poised to take up 4,000 MW Pudimadaka super thermal power project near Anakapalli and a 1000 MW solar power projects in Anantapur district in Andhra Pradesh, while a 4000 MW super thermal power project will be set up in Telangana. The Telangana government has identified the land required for the project and the NTPC board has recently approved the feasibility report for the project. (economictimes.indiatimes.com)

November 6, 2014. NHPC Ltd is prepared to wait and work out consensus before resumption of stalled 2000 MW Lower Subansiri hydro power project along Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border. The project is stalled since 2011 following massive protest from the anti dam groups. NHPC will spend close to ` 150 Crore for embankment building in 30 km long stretch area near the project and will pump in another ` 320 Crore in various livelihood development activities. Around 60 per cent of the work of the power project is almost completed. Union power ministry is likely to soon convene crucial stakeholders meet on stalled project. Construction at the project site started in 2005 and the project was slated to start operating 2014. (economictimes.indiatimes.com)

November 6, 2014. India and Nepal have agreed to a draft of the second Project Development Agreement (PDA) aimed to generate hydroelectric power in the Himalayan nation and the agreement may be signed during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit. Both the sides agreed to the 900 MW Arun III project on Arun river, at the end of a two day meeting held here between Nepal Investment Board (NIB) and Staluj Vidyut Nigam. The PDA is expected to be signed between Nepalese and Indian officials towards November end when Prime Minister Narendra Modi will arrive in Nepal to attend the 18^th SAARC Summit. Under the proposed PDA, the Indian power company would provide 21.9 per cent electricity generated from the project free of cost to the Nepal government. (economictimes.indiatimes.com)

November 5, 2014. The Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) has received ` 8 crore from the Centre for the renovation of the Sidrapong hydel project, one of the oldest hydel projects of the country. The GTA had already received the amount and a meeting would be convened with officials concerned to draw up a blueprint to renovate the project. The hydel project, situated 12 km from Darjeeling and in the foothills of Arya tea garden, was commissioned on November 10, 1897, by the then acting lieutenant-governor of Bengal, Charles Cecil Stevens. The power station, situated at an altitude of 3,600ft, is fed by three streams, Barbata, Hospital and Kotwali. It still generates 0.6 MW of electricity a day and is currently managed by the West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Corporation Limited. However, the plant produces power erratically as turbines are old and don't function properly. Besides, the dam and the powerhouse are in run-down condition. (economictimes.indiatimes.com)

November 11, 2014. Energy management firm Acme said it has signed a 25-year power purchase agreement with the Chhattisgarh power distribution company to supply power from its 30 MW solar plant to the state. As per the agreement, the company will provide around 50 million units power annually for a period of 25 years at a tariff of ` 6.46 per unit. Acme will be investing ` 210 crore for setting up the project, the work on which is expected to commence by June 2015 and the plant will be commissioned by December next year. The company, which has an existing portfolio of 422.5 MW with projects in the states of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Assam, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, aims to generate 1000 MW by 2017. (economictimes.indiatimes.com)

November 9, 2014. With the government expected to put 74 coal blocks on e-auction soon, most of them operational, Rattan India Power has decided to participate in the bidding so as to revive its nearly 2,700 MW worth of projects it had earlier shelved for want of fuel. Rattan India Power, erstwhile Indiabulls Power, had put on hold the second phase of two of its projects in Maharashtra - one each in Amravati and Nashik - since 2011 for want of coal and power purchase agreements (PPA) with distribution companies. The company is currently developing a total of 5,400 MW capacity with 2,700 MW each in Amravati and Nashik in two phases and has signed fuel supply agreement with Coal India. While the 1,350 MW Nashik plant is ready for commissioning it has not done so due to want of coal, and the 1,350 MW Amravati project is operational. (economictimes.indiatimes.com)

November 7, 2014. State-run power distribution utilities are increasingly turning to their private counterparts for advice on trimming their losses and improving supplies, with the result that Tata Power Delhi and the two BSES distribution companies run by Reliance Infrastructure in Delhi have even created separate wings to cater to this demand. Distribution arms of Tata Power, Reliance Infrastructure, Torrent and Essel group are receiving teams from state-controlled utilities to study their operations and management. According to estimates, state-run utilities have accumulated losses of ` 2 lakh crore, which explains the urgency to cut down losses, said a state utility official who has been closely interacting with private distribution companies. BSES Rajdhani and BSES Yamuna, which distribute electricity to 34 lakh consumers in Delhi, have received teams from state utilities of Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh, West Bengal, J&K, Uttar Pradesh and Meghalaya in the past few months. Their consultancy departments are providing services to Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam under a three-year agreement. (economictimes.indiatimes.com)

November 6, 2014. The central government has promised to "rationalise" coal supply to Maharashtra which is reeling under power shortage due to deficiency of the fuel in its thermal power plants. The state government is also planning a solar power project beside the Mumbai-Pune Expressway to tide over the shortfall in power supply. Coal shortage is stifling the state's power generation utility, which has over 70% of its installed capacity in thermal power (7,980 MW), leading to units with 630 MW capacity being shut down. (www.dnaindia.com)

November 5, 2014. Larsen & Toubro (L&T) said it has secured projects worth ` 1,576 crore across business segments in October. Its construction arm L&T Construction bagged contracts in its power transmission and distribution, water and renewable energy and heavy civil infrastructure businesses. In the power business, L&T secured orders valued at ` 1,164 crore from Madhyanchal Vidyut Vitaran Nigam under the R-APDRP scheme and the West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company (WBSEDC). The scope of contract from Madhyanchal Vidyut Vitaran Nigam, which is funded by Power Finance Corporation, includes construction of 33/11kV substations, renovation and modernisation of existing substations, 11kV distribution lines, distribution transformer centres, underground cabling, installation of ring main units and electronic energy metres. (www.business-standard.com)

November 11, 2014. An inter-ministerial committee (IMC) has recommended Coal India Ltd (CIL) encouraging setting up of washeries along with reject-based power plants so that rejects can be consumed in the same place, doing away with the need to transport them for long distances. The IMC to formulate policy on coal rejects allocation for washery-based power plants, which met recently, has suggested that the present washery based rejects generated by CIL could continue to be sold through e-auction. At present CIL generates about 1.3 million tonne per annum of rejects through washery. At present, CIL operates 17 coal washeries with a total capacity of 39.4 million tonnes per year. Out of these, 13 are coking coal washeries with a total capacity of 24.90 million tonnes, while four are non-coking coal washeries with a total capacity of 14.50 million tonnes. (economictimes.indiatimes.com)

November 11, 2014. The government is likely to cap prices of power generated from auctioned coal blocks to prevent companies from inflating electricity bills and profiteering, besides allowing successful bidders to use coal from a block in different power plants of the group. While the government believes that capping prices is necessary to keep electricity tariffs in check, power companies said they should be allowed to pass on the input cost to consumers since they will be paying a huge premium for the coal blocks.

Price ceiling would promote efficient utilisation of coal while discouraging companies from bidding arbitrarily for blocks auctioned for power sector. The proposal, which will be part of the 'auction methodology' being prepared by the coal ministry, will be discussed with the power ministry at a meet to discuss auction methodology for power, cement and steel sectors and will be later sent to the Cabinet for approval. Power firms with existing or proposed end-use projects will be allowed to participate in the auction, expected to kick off before January. Of the 204 coal blocks cancelled by the Supreme Court, 59 were allocated to power plants with combined capacity of over 67,000 MW capacity. Some of these have power purchase agreements with state-run distribution companies at a price determined through tariff-based bidding while some plants have agreements that provide fuel cost pass-through. The capping proposal replaces the bidding framework prepared by the UPA under which it offered 90% discount on coal blocks to power companies to keep electricity rates low. The UPA government sought to offer blocks to power firms via a UMPP-like tariff-based bidding. (economictimes.indiatimes.com)

November 11, 2014. The Centre has asked the coal controller's office to collect data for 74 coal blocks that are to be auctioned and hand it over to a central sector company tasked with arriving at a reserve price for each block after compiling the data. Data will include grade of coal in the reserves, investments made in setting up equipment and building infrastructure. The coal ministry has already asked private companies that were allotted blocks to provide these data to the coal controller. Of the 74 coal blocks, 32 have not started production. These blocks have stage-1 and stage-2 environmental clearances from the government. There are 37 producing blocks while five blocks are ready to produce. Meanwhile, the Centre has yet to arrive at a benchmark price for coal, based on which the reserve prices are to be determined. (economictimes.indiatimes.com)

November 10, 2014. Union Coal Secretary Anil Swarup said the Coal India Ltd (CIL) would mine 1,000 million tonnes of coal by 2019 -- doubling its present production of 500 million tonnes. The progress of 15 projects of Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL), including Angul-Sukinda common rail corridor, were reviewed at the meeting. The coal ministry has targeted completion of the railway line project through which coal will be transported to various industries by December 2017. Recently, the Container Corporation of India (Concor) decided to invest ` 156 crore for 26 percent equity to participate in the Angul-Sukinda railway line project.

The project, being constructed under the public-private partnership (PPP) model, will provide a rail link to the steel and power plants located in Angul, Dhenkanal and Jajpur districts. Two other rail links being developed in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh are important for coal transportation, Swarup said. As the Odisha government has requested the Centre to provide coal blocks to state PSUs during allocation, the coal secretary said he will examine the proposal of the government. The issues of environment and forest clearances were also discussed at the meeting. Odisha Chief Secretary G.C. Pati said the state government would provide all support to MCL for exploring 200 million tonnes from its present production of 110 million tonnes. (economictimes.indiatimes.com)

November 10, 2014. Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC) has not admitted the petition of power utility PSPCL which had sought permission for import of 1.2 million tonne of coal, involving "additional financial liability" of ` 505 crore. In its petition, the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) had sought approval regarding import of coal for its thermal power stations. PSPCL had cited short supply of coal by Panem Coal Mines Limited and Monnet Daniels Coal Washeries Limited to its thermal power units in the state. PSPCL had faced critical coal stock supplies at its three thermal power units --Lehra Mohabbat, Ropar and Bathinda which have combine power generation capacity of 2640 MW. (economictimes.indiatimes.com)

November 10, 2014. The Coal Ministry has said that Coal India Ltd (CIL) has signed 161 fuel supply agreements (FSAs) for a capacity of 73,675 MW. The ministry said that there are 43 Letter of Assurances (LoAs) which are not covered within the 78,000 MW projects. Of this, 25 projects with a a capacity of 19,635 MW have already achieved their milestones. The coal ministry had earlier said that CIL was yet to enter into fuel supply pacts with some of the power units as issues like change in ownership and extension of coal supplies were still being examined by it. Two deadlines set for the signing of FSAs by CIL with the power producers could not be adhered to. The government had set the deadline of August 31, 2013 for signing of FSAs, which could not be met. The second deadline was set for September, last year. The company, which accounts for 80 per cent of the domestic coal production, dispatched 353.83 million tonnes (MT) of coal to the power sector in FY2014. CIL produced 462 MT in the last fiscal. It has targeted an output of 507 MT in the current fiscal. (www.business-standard.com)

November 10, 2014. Tata Power and Adani Power, two of India's biggest private electricity generation companies, may have to wait longer for a decision on their proposals to increase tariffs as the head of the panel hearing their case is due to retire this month. Both companies, which operate separate plants at Mundra in Gujarat, sought higher than-contracted tariffs for electricity sold to state utilities after the price of coal imported from Indonesia increased. Although the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity (APTEL) had approved a tariff increase, the Supreme Court stayed the order and asked it to re-hear and expedite the matter, a process that's under way. APTEL has re-heard the power utilities of Punjab and Haryana and still needs to hear the rest, after which both Tata and Adani will get a chance. APTEL had passed an order allowing an increase of 52 paise per unit and 41 paise per unit to Tata Power and Adani Power, respectively. The decision was challenged by the state power utilities of Punjab, Haryana, Maharashtra and Rajasthan. (economictimes.indiatimes.com)

November 10, 2014. The Ministry of Coal has agreed to consider the Odisha government's plea to award exclusive coal blocks for its PSUs and provide assured coal linkages to independent power producers (IPPs) that have made substantial headway on their projects. The state government had raised the two demands after the Supreme Court’s order that saw 204 coal blocks being deal located. State PSUs like Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) and Odisha Power Generation Corporation (OPGC) ended up losing their coal blocks. (www.business-standard.com)

November 9, 2014. The Coal India board has ratified the first 1,600 MW (800 MW x 2) pithead thermal power project by it's subsidiary Mahanadi Coalfields at a capital expenditure of ` 11,000 crore for the foray into electricity generation by the world's biggest coal producer. The management, without any independent directors on the board, cleared the project. It also cleared five other mining projects which would generate an additional 30 million tonnes of coal. Coal India said as these projects were treated as regular business and not policy decisions. The Government is yet to appoint any of the seven independent directors out of total board strength of 14. The independent director berths have been vacant since September 11, 2014. The Mahanadi Coalfields power project, located in the Sundergarh district of Odisha, is the maiden pithead thermal power project of Coal India Ltd (CIL) and could be operational over the next three years. (economictimes.indiatimes.com)

November 6, 2014. Providing 24X7 power will be one of the most pressing challenges for the new government, Piyush Goyal, Minister of State for Power, Coal, New and Renewable Energy, said. Goyal said that the slogan "power for all" has seen many milestones over the years, and it's time that it finally culminates into action and performance. He said that the government is committed to provide power for all businesses and homes across the country by 2019. India has 53 million homes that do not have access to electricity, and many businesses depend on generator sets. (businesstoday.intoday.in)

November 6, 2014. As government charts out a multi- pronged growth agenda for power sector, it is cautious about not being saddled with technology discarded by West in the name of nuclear energy, Union Minister Piyush Goyal said. Goyal said that the US and many European countries have discontinued installation of nuclear plants. He said that he has yet to determine the life-cycle costs of nuclear power right through to decommissioning. The Minister predicted a "huge investment opportunity" of nearly USD 250 billion in the energy sector over the next four to five years, including USD 100 billion in renewables and USD 50 billion in transmission and distribution. (economictimes.indiatimes.com)

November 5, 2014. Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has indicated a thrust on power sector reforms. Khattar, who also holds the portfolio of minister of power, said in the ongoing Assembly session the transmission and distribution losses of the state power utilities stood at 16 per cent and this plain theft of power restricts the power supply to the end-users. He said schemes to ensure the efficient management of power sector would be drawn. Khattar also said the Opposition and the general public would be involved in decision-making process of the government. Khattar said the present installed capacity was 5,000 MW against the demand of 4,000 MW. The total number of power plants in Haryana is 20 and on an average eight to nine plants remain functional. The state can have surplus power if the optimum utilisation of the power generation capacity is restored. The open-ended subsidies on power, giveaways such as no tariff revision in the financial year 2014-15 and subsidies to the agriculture consumers put an extra financial burden on the power utilities. The short-run power liabilities of the state till March 31, 2012, are ` 18,000 crore.

According to the Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission, Agriculture power subsidy bill of the state amounts to ` 5,284 crore on June 1, 2014. To bridge the gap between the average revenue realised and average cost of production, the tariff should have been revised by 52 paise a unit. The revision was deferred, owing to the impending Assembly elections in the state. Haryana is an agriculture dominant state and the power availability for agriculture is indispensable for irrigation. The state is also dotted with the clusters of information technology outfits and automobile manufacturers. The rapid urbanisation of the state also adds to the demand for power every year. (www.business-standard.com)

November 5, 2014. About 20 industrial bodies, under the banner of Tamil Nadu Electricity Consumers Association, urged the state government to defer till April next the power tariff hike, proposed by Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission (TNERC). The bodies, which met and discussed the issue, were of the opinion that the present proposal to hike the tariff was unnecessary and unwanted, since there could be another revision again in April 2015, the association said. The last revision should have taken place in April this year, for which TANGEDCO had to send a proposal to the Commission in November 2013, but now it has been asked to send the proposal by the end of November for next revision to be taken place in April 2015, he pointed out. The cost of power in the state had been highest in the country since 2010 except in 2012. Also, transmission and distribution loss had been high in the state for the last 20 years. (economictimes.indiatimes.com)

November 5, 2014. The government finds itself in a bind as Russian engineering, procurement and construction company TPE continues to give state-run generation utility NTPC a run-around, raising the prospect of further delaying the 1,980 MW Barh power project in Bihar. After overshooting the completion schedule by more than three years and receiving $190 million in 2010, TPE has raised a demand for an additional $248 million for completing the remaining work. TPE has raised the demand even after Sberbank Rossii, Russia's biggest bank, extended a $328 million line of credit to help the government-run engineering firm complete its contract for supplying boilers for the Barh project. But NTPC has refused to entertain the demand since the amount demanded by TPE is "beyond" the terms of the contract. Peeved with the demand, NTPC has also drawn the government's attention towards TPE constantly shifting commissioning dates. NTPC wants to complete the job on its own after scrapping TPE's contract and encashing its bank guarantee of $174 million. According to the contract, NTPC can pay $169 million for supplies and erection and $71 million for price variation. It would then appear that TPE has the money to complete the remaining work, which would require $580 million. Of this, TPE has $328 million from Sberbank. (economictimes.indiatimes.com)

 [INTERNATIONAL: OIL & GAS]

November 11, 2014. Canadian heavy oil strengthened the most in more than a month after Imperial Oil Ltd. shut operations at its Kearl oil sands project. Operations were suspended after vibrations were detected in an ore crusher unit at the site, the company said. The shutdown will last “several weeks” and customers will be supplied from inventories and through purchases of crude on the market. Imperial was producing 92,000 barrels a day at Kearl in the third quarter, the company said. Kearl, located 70 kilometers (44 miles) north of Fort McMurray in Alberta, contains about 4.6 billion barrels of recoverable bitumen, which is mined from the earth, according to the company. Imperial plans to ramp up production to 110,000 barrels a day, the company said. Production from Kearl will average 62,400 barrels a day in the fourth quarter, RBC Capital Markets said. Canadian oil sands producers are projected to raise production at an annual rate of 170,000 barrels a day through 2030, according to data by the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. Oil sands output will increase to 2.3 million barrels a day in 2015 from 1.9 million barrels a day last year, according to the group. (www.bloomberg.com)

November 11, 2014. Mubadala Petroleum, a unit of Abu Dhabi state investment fund Mubadala, said it has started production at a second oilfield in Thailand, which it operates with partners. Output is expected to reach a peak rate of around 15,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd) as the wells are completed at the Manora oil field, the company said. Mubadala Petroleum, operates the Manora oil field in the northern Gulf of Thailand in partnership with Tap Energy (Thailand) Pty Ltd and Northern Gulf Petroleum Pte Ltd. Up to 10 production wells and five injection wells are planned in the oil field where the investment is $300 million, the company said. Mubadala also operates the Jasmine oil field which has produced over 50 million barrels of oil so far. Mubadala is also in the process of developing the Nong Yao oil field with first output expected by mid-2015, by which time the company's oil production in Thailand will have more than doubled from current rates, it said. (www.rigzone.com)

November 10, 2014. Kazakhstan’s $48 billion Kashagan oil project in the Caspian Sea will definitely resume output by 2017 after partners replace pipelines, said Arnaud Breuillac, Total SA’s president of exploration and production. Output will start at the earliest in 2016, Breuillac said. Total, along with partners Exxon Mobil Corp, Eni SpA and Royal Dutch Shell Plc, stopped output in October last year, a month after production began, due to a natural gas leak. The cost of developing Kashagan doubled and the planned start of output was delayed by eight years to 2013 as remote islands had to be built to support drilling equipment and staff quarters. Output from Kashagan will contribute to Total’s plan to boost output to 2.8 million barrels a day in 2017 from 2.1 million on average in the first half this year, Breuillac said. Oil producers will seek to cut costs amid falling crude prices and boost production from technology that allows for a wider range of sources from shale to deep sea offshore deposits, Breuillac said. Total will focus on exploring for and producing energy from offshore fields and on liquefied natural gas projects, he said. (www.bloomberg.com)

November 10, 2014. Libya, holder of Africa’s largest crude reserves, is resuming output at its biggest oil field even as operations at some export terminals are disrupted. The Sharara and Elephant fields in southwestern Libya will restart production after gunmen returned equipment they had stolen from the sites, National Oil Corp., said. Two other export ports, Es Sider and Mellitah, were shut because of bad weather. Es Sider, Libya’s largest port, has capacity for 340,000 barrels a day of crude, while Mellitah can handle 160,000 barrels and Hariga can ship 110,000 barrels. Libya is seeking to restore crude output after more than a year of political unrest and violence. The nation produced 850,000 barrels a day, compared with 1.6 million barrels before the 2011 ouster of former leader Muammar Qaddafi. (www.bloomberg.com)

November 10, 2014. Norway's gas output was reduced by 9.3 million cubic metres (mcm) per day due to compressor problems at the offshore Gjoea gas field and it was unknown how long the outage would last, the country's gas system operator Gassco said. The outage is affecting Norwegian gas flows entering the FLAGS pipeline which delivers gas to Shell's SEGAL terminal in Britain, it said. Gas flows from Norway, Europe's second-biggest gas supplier, had already been reduced by 10.9 mcm per day due to another outage at BP's Skarv field. (www.rigzone.com)

November 10, 2014. BP reported that it has been awarded two new exploration blocks as a result of Egypt's 2013 EGAS bid round. BP said it and its partners have committed to invest a total of $240 million in the blocks over different phases. Block 3 (North El Mataria) will represent BP's entry into the onshore Nile Delta. The block is located in the northeastern part of the Nile Delta cone, approximately 35 miles to the west of Port Said city. BP will operate the block with a 50-percent equity participation, while Abu Dhabi's Dana Gas will hold the remaining 50-percent interest. Block 8 (Karawan Offshore) is located in the Mediterranean Sea in the northeast part of Egypt's waters, some 135 miles to the northeast of Alexandria. BP will also hold a 50-percent interest here while Italy's ENI will hold the remaining 50 percent. The program for the two blocks will include 3D seismic data acquisition and three exploration wells in each block over a six-to-eight year period. (www.rigzone.com)

November 7, 2014. The slump in oil prices is a boon to China as the world’s second-biggest oil consumer. It’s a different story for the country as a major producer. The slide in prices to a four-year low threatens to cut spending, production and profit for the country’s oil companies including PetroChina Co. Brent, the global benchmark, has fallen 26 percent this year to below $83 a barrel. The decline, amid signs that global supply is outpacing demand, is pressuring profits from oil extraction across the globe. After a flurry of acquisitions and spending that’s stretched the balance sheets of Chinese oil companies, the country will also have a diminished appetite for deals, according to Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. If Brent averages $80 a barrel next year, earnings at the large oil companies in China, the world’s fourth-largest oil producer, would drop as much as 54 percent from a year earlier, according to a report from Bernstein. Prices staying at that level in 2015 would lead to a 1.5 percent decline in domestic production as companies struggle to cover the cost to replace reserves, the report found. (www.bloomberg.com)

November 6, 2014. ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL), the overseas investment arm of Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), is looking to buy a stake in the assets of Africa-focused exploration company Tullow Oil Plc. India, the world's fourth biggest oil consumer, has charged state oil firms with acquiring assets overseas to improve the security of its energy supplies. The country imports about 80 percent of its crude needs. OVL aims to get 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude from its overseas assets by 2018, compared with about 167,000 bpd produced from overseas holdings in the fiscal year to March 2014, ONGC said. To meet its objective the company is looking at acquisitions, preferably of producing assets, in politically less risky countries. OVL wants to acquire assets in stable geographies like North America, Canada and Mexico, and expand its presence in Africa. London-listed Tullow has a number of oil assets in Africa, including its flagship Jubilee oil field offshore Ghana. (in.reuters.com)

November 6, 2014. Saudi Arabia’s rivals in the shale fields from North Dakota to Texas aren’t flinching as the Persian Gulf kingdom wages a price war to reclaim market share and chill competition. The U.S. companies believe they have a lot more staying power than many of Saudi Arabia’s partners in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Several producers plan on increasing production. Executives at several large U.S. shale producers, including Chesapeake and EOG Resources Inc. (EOG), have vowed to maintain -- and even raise -- production as they reported. They say their success in bringing down costs means they can make money even if prices slump further. Shale producers cite their success in reducing costs as proof that they can still be profitable at prices below $70. In Chesapeake’s two largest production areas -- Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale and the Eagle Ford formation in Texas -- well costs dropped 11 percent and 13 percent, respectively, during the first seven months of this year compared with 2013, the company said. EOG can make money at $40 a barrel in the Eagle Ford. The region produces about 1.6 million barrels a day, about the same as the nation of Qatar. U.S. producers will come under more pressure to throttle back spending if crude prices continue to fall, and stay at $70 a barrel or less through 2015, Barclays Plc said in a report. Even with lower costs, companies that have relied on debt to fund drilling will face greater pressure as interest rates rise and access to funding is reduced. About half of U.S. shale resources would be “challenged” next year if prices remain at $70, according to the Barclays analysts. (www.bloomberg.com)

November 10, 2014. Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA said its 310,000 barrel-per-day Cardon refinery was hit by an electrical fault during a weekend storm, resulting in the halting of some units. A storm on the Paraguana peninsula knocked out electricity, the company said. The nearby 645,000 barrel-per-day Amuay refinery is being restarted after a blackout had shut it down. PDVSA said it still had enough fuel inventories to cover domestic and international demand. (www.downstreamtoday.com)

November 10, 2014. Iran plans to construct a number of oil refineries and supply crude oil to Indonesia. Indonesian Energy and Mines Ministry oil and gas acting director general Naryanto Wagimin said that Iran is planning will construct the refineries with an investment of $3 bn in Indonesia's western provinces of Banten and West Java. Indonesia identified Iran's crude oil suitable for processing at Cilacap refinery in the southwestern part of Central Java Province, Wagimin said. Iran's Nakhle Barani Pardis has signed an agreement with Indonesian PT Kreasindo for the construction of oil refineries in Indonesia. The Iranian oil firm will deliver between 20,000 and 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil over a 20-year period to the refineries. (www.energy-business-review.com)

November 5, 2014. A third U.K. refinery shutdown in five years will put hundreds of people out of work while making only a small dent in the estimated 2 million barrels a day of European capacity that must go by 2020. Murphy Oil Corp will close the Milford Haven refinery in Wales after a sale to Klesch Group collapsed, ending a four-year search for a buyer and resulting in “significant” redundancies, the U.S. oil company said. All but 60 of 400 positions will probably go, the BBC reported without saying where it got the information. European refiners have struggled to turn a profit as recession curbed demand for fuel, more efficient plants opened in Asia and the Middle East and a boom in U.S. shale-oil output closed a major export market. That led to more than a dozen plants shutting, the biggest wave of closures since the 1980s. The latest shutdown leaves the U.K. with six operating refineries. Milford Haven was the smallest, with a processing capacity of 135,000 barrels of oil a day. Murphy Oil, based in El Dorado, Arkansas, boosted capacity by about a quarter in 2010, three years after it paid $250 million to Total for its 70 percent stake. (www.bloomberg.com)

November 5, 2014. Thailand's top energy company, PTT Pcl, said it would finalise the funding plan for a $22 billion refinery and petrochemical complex in Vietnam in the third quarter of 2015. Vietnam's trade and industry ministry recently gave the go-ahead for the project, subject to approval from the government. PTT will join with Saudi Aramco, the world's biggest oil producer, to develop the project, which includes a 400,000 barrel-per-day refinery and an olefins and aromatic petrochemical plant making 5 million tonnes a year. PTT and Aramco will each own 40 percent of the project in Binh Dinh's Nhon Hoi economic zone, with the Vietnamese government holding the remaining 20 percent. PTT has said the oil refinery could begin construction in 2016 and start operation in 2021. (www.downstreamtoday.com)

November 5, 2014. Saudi Arabia is developing two new oil refineries, as part of its efforts to strengthen its downstream market. Upon completion in 2015, the two plants will have refining capacity of 800,000 barrels per day. According to the Joint Organisations Data Initiative's (JODI), Saudi Arabia had exported 6.663 million barrels of crude per day in August, down from 6.989 million bpd in July. (www.energy-business-review.com)

November 10, 2014. Sinopec Corp's Canadian unit has agreed to pay a C$150,000 ($132,000) fine for spilling nearly 2,500 barrels of contaminated water into a northern Alberta creek in 2012, regulators in the Western Canadian province said. Sinopec Daylight Energy Ltd will pay the fine after a contractor disabled an emergency shutdown device on a pipeline carrying contaminated water from a petroleum well near Fox Creek in northern Alberta in February 2012. (www.downstreamtoday.com)

November 7, 2014. Canadian pipeline company Veresen Inc is talking to Japanese buyers for offtake from its Jordan Cove liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility in Oregon and expects to make a final investment decision for the project by the middle of next year. The project is one of a number of planned LNG terminals being built to ship surging production from shale formations to Asia's energy hungry markets. Veresen expects to be able to ship LNG from the U.S. West Coast to Tokyo Bay for $11 per million British thermal units (mmBtu). Initial capacity is slated to be six million tonnes of LNG, with shipments expected to start by 2019. That price would make the gas almost 30 percent cheaper than the average price of LNG imports to Japan in September, at $15.54 per mmBtu. A shipment of gas from Alaska to Japan in September cost $16.00 per mmBtu on a customs-cleared basis. Veresen may supply the terminal with gas from the United States through its $1.425-billion acquisition of a 50-percent stake in the Ruby pipeline, which was completed. The Ruby line carries as much as 1.5 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas 680 miles from the Opal, Wyoming hub to the Malin hub in southern Oregon. Veresen is a building a new pipeline to connect to the Malin hub and Jordan Cove. (www.downstreamtoday.com)

November 7, 2014. The first gas from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz II project will be delivered to Europe in the first quarter of 2020, BP said. Shah Deniz, Azerbaijan's biggest gas field, is operated by BP with partners TPAO of Turkey, Azerbaijan's SOCAR, Russian oil firm Lukoil and Iran's Nico. Research and analysis group Energy Intelligence reported that the first gas deliveries to Europe from Shah Deniz via the southern gas corridor being opened across Turkey had been pushed back to the first quarter of 2020 from 2019. For the European Union, Shah Deniz II is an important alternative to Russia's Gazprom for gas supplies. It is expected to supply 20 percent of EU needs in the long term from proven reserves estimated at 1.2 trillion cubic metres. The first phase, Shah Deniz I, has been pumping gas since 2006 and has an annual production capacity of about 10 billion cubic metres of natural gas. (www.downstreamtoday.com)

November 7, 2014. Russian and Kazakh oil exports via the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) are set to increase by 20 percent in November from the previous month, a preliminary schedule showed. The schedule showed loadings carried from Kazakhstan's Caspian Sea oil deposits to Russia's Black Sea port of Novorossiisk may rise to 3.604 million tonnes (949,053 barrels per day) this month from 3.096 million in October.

The oil flows will be boosted thanks to planned maintenance at the pipeline on Oct. 21-23 and at an oil treatment plant. Although it traverses Russia and was developed in conjunction with the Russian government, the pipeline was the first to give the Caspian Sea region and Kazakhstan a viable alternative to Russian-dominated northern export routes. (www.downstreamtoday.com)

November 7, 2014. California, the nation’s largest gasoline market, received the least amount of oil by rail in 17 months as cheaper in-state supplies and imports eliminated the need for Canadian supplies. The most populous U.S. state took 11,612 barrels a day by rail in September, a 7.5 percent drop from a month earlier and down from a peak of 38,086 barrels a day in December, California Energy Commission data show. Shipments from Canada, which made up 76 percent of California’s oil-by-rail receipts last November, tumbled to zero, the agency said. The slide in Canadian shipments highlights how competition is growing to supply the western U.S. as refining markets elsewhere in the nation drive out imports by processing more domestic shale oil. Exxon Mobil Corp’s Torrance refinery near Los Angeles was said to shut a crude unit in September, cutting the cost of oil from California’s San Joaquin Valley and making rail shipments less economic, according to energy consulting company Stillwater Associates. (www.bloomberg.com)

November 6, 2014. BHP Billiton Ltd plans to export condensate from the U.S., the first company seen to ship the fuel abroad without express permission from federal regulators. BHP sold a cargo after deciding that it’s a processed product eligible for export and without a direct ruling from the U.S. Commerce Department, said. The company plans to export condensate from Texas’s Eagle Ford formation that’s been run through distillation towers. The shipment shows how companies are increasingly finding ways around a four-decade-old law prohibiting most oil from leaving U.S. shores. Enterprise Products Partners and Pioneer Natural Resources Co. received rulings this year from the Commerce Department allowing them to send the lightly-processed oil overseas. South Korea bought at least one of the cargoes. (www.bloomberg.com)

November 6, 2014. Things are slowing down at the U.S.’s largest oil-import hub. Just six years after importing more than 1 million barrels a day from countries including Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and Iraq, the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port is receiving just half of that from overseas, highlighting a nationwide trend at harbors from Mississippi to Pennsylvania. What’s more, with U.S. output soaring to a 31-year high, neighboring Texas has become the port’s second-biggest supplier. Booming oil and gas production created more than 159,000 jobs between 2007 and 2013, Bureau of Labor Statistics data show. The country will be self-sufficient in energy by 2030, BP Plc says. A four-decade ban on exporting most U.S. crude has stranded the bulk of America’s surging production within the nation’s borders, blocking inbound global shipments. Some cargoes permitted for export, such as those from Alaska, have begun moving overseas. South Korea last month received its first shipment of Alaskan oil in more than a decade. (www.bloomberg.com)

November 5, 2014. Swiss prosecutors contacted commodity traders including Gunvor Group Ltd. and Vitol Group as they assist a Nigerian investigation of an alleged multi-billion dollar scam over subsidies for oil-product imports. Gunvor, the fifth-largest independent oil trader, said the firm was notified in June by Switzerland’s attorney general that it was assisting a probe by Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission of fraud involving local fuel importers. Nigeria, Africa’s largest crude producer, subsidizes local companies to import about 70 percent of the nation’s gasoline, diesel and other petroleum products as aging and inefficient refineries can’t meet demand. Fraudulent payments related to subsidized fuel imports are estimated to cost the continent’s biggest economy as much as $7 billion a year, according to a 2012 report by Nigeria’s Parliament. Vitol Group, the world’s largest oil trader, has also been contacted by Swiss authorities regarding product imports to Nigeria. The system of fuel-import subsidies, which are supposed to be passed on to consumers, is opaque and rife with “endemic corruption,” according to the April 2012 Nigerian parliamentary report. Two months later, President Goodluck Jonathan dismissed the head of Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. after the report said the state oil company, the country’s biggest gasoline importer, received illegal fuel-subsidy payments. (www.bloomberg.com)

November 5, 2014. Saudi Arabia’s increase in oil prices for Asia signals the world’s biggest crude exporter is shifting the focus of its fight for market share on U.S. buyers. While Saudi Arabian Oil Co. boosted differentials for supplies to Asia next month after cutting some November prices to the lowest in almost six years, American buyers will get another month of reductions. The Middle East producer isn’t prepared to surrender sales in the U.S., where a shale boom has lifted output to the highest in more than 30 years, according to Idemitsu Kosan Co., Japan’s third-largest refiner, and Elements Capital Inc., a Tokyo-based hedge fund that focuses on energy. Global oil prices slid into a bear market last month on speculation the biggest OPEC producers were discounting their crude to maintain market share, resisting calls to cut output amid slowing demand growth. West Texas Intermediate futures slumped to the lowest in three years on signs the Saudis are prepared to go even lower to shore up U.S. demand. Saudi Arabia can count on sales to Asia for revenues as most customers hold long-term contracts that require them to take deliveries. The country shipped 68 percent of its crude exports to Asia and 19 percent to the U.S. last year, data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration show. The biggest oil consumers in Asia including China, Japan, India and South Korea count Saudi Arabia as their largest supplier. The region accounts for about one-third of global oil demand, according to the International Energy Agency in Paris. (www.bloomberg.com)

November 5, 2014. TransCanada Corp. said delays in receiving U.S. approval for its Keystone XL project have increased costs by 48 percent to $8 billion, raising the price customers will have to pay to ship oil on the proposed pipeline. TransCanada has been waiting since 2008 for a U.S. decision on the line that would carry crude from Alberta’s oil sands across the border to Gulf Coast refineries. The Calgary-based company has spent about $2.4 billion on the project as of Sept. 30, it said. It had previously estimated the 1,179-mile project would cost $5.4 billion. TransCanada is seeking to boost its crude transportation business to bring expanding supplies from oil-sands projects to refiners and export terminals. Output from Western Canada is forecast to more than double to 4.8 million barrels a day by 2030 from 1.9 million last year, according to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. In addition to Keystone XL, TransCanada has proposed the C$12 billion ($10.5 billion) Energy East line that would bring crude to Canada’s Atlantic Coast. (www.bloomberg.com)

November 11, 2014. Namibia sees as many as five oil exploration wells being drilled in 2016 as companies searching for deposits off the southwest African coast are undeterred by 19 dry wells. Tullow Oil Plc and Royal Dutch Shell Plc, which has two exploration blocks in the Orange River Basin, will probably sink wells in 2016, Namibia’s Petroleum Commissioner Immanuel Mulunga said. Murphy Oil Corp may drill toward the end of 2015 or early 2016, he said. The basin is off the country’s southern coast. Basins off Namibia have attracted attention from the world’s biggest oil explorers on a bet the nation’s coastal shelf may mirror that of Brazil across the Atlantic and its northern neighbor Angola, Africa’s second-biggest oil producer. The government may revoke some of the 46 exploration licenses it has awarded if the holders haven’t met their obligations, Mulunga said. Tullow Oil is planning to drill a well in 2016, the London-based company, said. Shell is conducting a seismic survey in its license area 250 kilometers (155 miles) off the Namibian coast and once that data has been analyzed, the company will make a decision on whether to proceed with an exploration well. Murphy Oil, which has two exploration blocks in the Luderitz basin, said that it’s proposing to drill as many as two possible exploration wells to appraise the potential of the geological structure. (www.bloomberg.com)

November 11, 2014. Nigeria, Africa’s biggest oil producer, won’t cut spending while crude prices remain above the benchmark used for this year’s budget, Trade and Investment Minister Olusegun Aganga said. Nigeria based its 2014 budget on an oil price of $77.50 a barrel and a daily output of 2.39 million barrels. Africa’s biggest economy and most populous nation of about 170 million people relies on oil for 70 percent of government revenue and 95 percent of export earnings. Average crude prices among members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) have dropped below $80 a barrel for the first time in four years. Brent crude, which compares with Nigeria’s light crude, traded at $81.87 a barrel in London, the lowest in four years. The immediate impact of lower oil prices is to cut the amount of money that accrues above the price used for the budget, which goes to the Excess Crude Account, Aganga said. The fund currently has a balance of $4.11 billion, according to the Finance Ministry. Under an industrialization plan being implemented by the government, automakers including Nissan Motor Corp., Volkswagen AG, Seoul-based Hyundai Motor Corp., India’s Tata Motors Ltd and Toyota Motor Corp, have either set up assembly plants or shown interest in investing in Nigeria. Such investments will help Nigeria cut an import bill of $6.5 billion a year for cars and their spare parts, reducing some of the pressure on the country’s currency, according to Aganga. (www.bloomberg.com)

November 11, 2014. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban urged the European Union to build gas pipeline interconnectors across borders to ensure that natural gas from Azerbaijan reaches markets in central Europe. Hungary has unnerved some European partners with its support for the South Stream pipeline project, which is designed to carry Russian gas to central Europe, bypassing Ukraine. The U.S. government is concerned that a drift by Hungary toward the Kremlin over energy could undermine Western attempts to isolate Russian leader Vladimir Putin over his intervention in Ukraine. Hungary has said it supports the building of Russian and non-Russian gas sources alike to ensure that there are alternative supply routes to the current ageing pipelines. The central European country gets most of its gas from Russia via Ukraine, which it has seen as a risk to its energy security. Azeri gas could reach southern Europe through the proposed Trans Adriatic Gas Pipeline and the Trans Anatolian Pipeline. (www.rigzone.com)

November 11, 2014. Russia’s plan to build a second gas pipeline to China would cement President Vladimir Putin’s policy of tilting energy exports toward Asia. Fulfilling his goal is likely to come at a price. The pipeline from western Siberia to China has long been a Russian aim for two reasons -- it’s a relatively short distance from the fields to China’s border and the same deposits also serve European customers, allowing state gas company OAO Gazprom to switch supplies between the two markets. China’s been less keen. The western route delivers gas to the country’s arid west, thousands of miles from industrial heartlands on the coast. That’s why the two countries agreed to a pipeline from eastern Siberia with less ground to cover on the Chinese side of the border. To get a final deal for the second route, Russia will have to offer a very attractive price compared with existing exports contracts, said Alexander Kornilov, an Alfa Bank energy analyst in Moscow. The preliminary agreement to build the second Russia-China link was announced by Putin and President Xi Jinping at an economic summit in Beijing. The pipeline would deliver as much as 30 billion cubic meters of gas a year for 30 years, adding to the 38 billion agreed in the first supply contract. That would see China overtake Germany as Russia’s largest gas customer. (www.bloomberg.com)

November 11, 2014. Norway’s oil lobby cut its investment forecasts as companies in western Europe’s biggest crude exporter rein in spending to handle rising costs and lower energy prices. Investments will fall to 201 billion kroner ($29 billion) in 2015 from 221 billion this year, the Norwegian Oil and Gas Association said. That compares with a 2015 nominal-price forecast of 218 billion kroner from a year ago. Companies including Statoil ASA, the state-controlled operator of more than 70 percent of Norway’s oil and gas production, have cut investment plans to raise shareholder returns that have been hurt by a decade of rising costs in the offshore industry. At the same time, oil prices have fallen 30 percent since June, threatening profitability of some projects and risking further delays and cancellations. (www.bloomberg.com)

November 10, 2014. The result of a tender to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) import facility at the busy oil port of Fujairah will be announced in late 2014 or early 2015, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) energy minister Suhail bin Mohammed al-Mazroui said. The minister said the project would have a capacity of 9 million tonnes a year. EmiratesLNG, a joint venture between state-controlled International Petroleum Investment Co (IPIC) and Mubadala Petroleum, won approval for the venture in November 2013. The company has said the new terminal will be able to accommodate the largest LNG tankers, with most of the gas destined for the UAE'S power sector. (www.downstreamtoday.com)

November 10, 2014. China has secured almost a fifth of the natural gas supplies it will need by the end of the decade after striking a second major deal with Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping signed the gas-supply agreement in Beijing the day before U.S. President Barack Obama arrived in the Chinese capital for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. The deal is slightly smaller than the $400 billion accord reached earlier this year, shortly after Russia’s annexation of Crimea. Russia’s OAO Gazprom is negotiating the supply of as much as 30 billion cubic meters of gas annually from West Siberia to China over 30 years, it said. Another Russian company is discussing the sale of a 10 percent stake in a Siberian unit to China National Petroleum Corp. (www.bloomberg.com)

November 10, 2014. Romania has fought hard to discover shale gas that apparently does not exist, Prime Minister (PM) Victor Ponta said. Like its emerging European Union peer Poland, Romania has opened the door to companies seeking to uncover shale gas, hoping to replicate a boom in cheap energy seen in the United States. The drive to find alternative gas resources has become more urgent since the conflict broke out in Ukraine, through which Russia sends almost half of its gas exports to the EU. But Poland sharply slashed its estimated shale gas reserves to about a tenth of the 5.3 trillion cubic metres that the U.S. Energy Information Administration initially anticipated. The administration has also estimated Romania could potentially hold 51 trillion cubic feet of shale gas, which would cover domestic demand for more than a century. Chevron, the first company to begin exploring for shale gas in Romania, has said it was analysing data collected from Pungesti and that it aimed to drill more wells in the area. It also has rights for three licence blocks near the Black Sea. Energy Minister Razvan Nicolescu said that Romania will produce more gas than it and smaller eastern neighbour Moldova consume by 2020. (www.rigzone.com)

November 10, 2014. OPEC won’t cut its collective crude output when it meets this month and global oil prices will stabilize once the surplus is absorbed by the market, Kuwait Oil Minister Ali Al-Omair said. OPEC, which supplies about 40 percent of the world’s oil, meets Nov. 27 to debate supply. The 12-member Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which has a production target of 30 million barrels a day, pumped 30.974 million barrels a day in October. Oil tumbled into a bear market this year as supply expanded from the U.S. to Libya. OPEC members Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have resisted calls to cut output while Libya, Venezuela and Ecuador have asked for action to prevent even lower prices. Kuwait has no plans to cut its own crude production, which should increase to 4 million barrels from a current by 2020, Al-Omair said. Kuwait produced 2.85 million barrels a day in October. (www.bloomberg.com)

November 10, 2014. Hurt by high energy import costs, particularly for liquefied natural gas (LNG), Japan is rethinking its approach to the fossil fuel. Adverse circumstances had compelled the country to switch to liquefied natural gas LNG for power generation following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant disaster, which was triggered by an earthquake and a tsunami that struck Japan’s east coast in March 2011. Japan, which was the world’s largest LNG importer even before the Fukushima incident, further entrenched its pole position as an importer when it purchased more foreign cargoes to compensate for the loss or production due to the shutdown of nuclear power plants. Increased imports lifted Japan’s share of the global LNG market, which stood at 37 percent in 2012, the United States Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in a July report. Japanese LNG import cost rose in tandem with the surge in domestic gas demand following the Fukushima disaster, with the 2012 average LNG price reaching a peak of $16.75 million British thermal unit (mmBtu) compared with $10.91 mmBtu in 2010, data from BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2014 showed. (www.downstreamtoday.com)

November 6, 2014. The price of oil is a “concern for everyone,” Venezuela’s representative to OPEC said after a meeting with Saudi Arabia’s oil minister. Rafael Ramirez, who is also Venezuela’s foreign minister, said that at a climate-change conference on Margarita Island that Saudi Arabia’s participation at the event was part of a meeting between friends. The Middle East nation is the biggest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), a 12-member group responsible for about 40 percent of the world’s oil supply. Brent crude has collapsed to the lowest level in more than four years amid speculation that global supply is outpacing demand. OPEC’s leading producers are responding by cutting prices, resisting calls to reduce supply as they compete with the highest U.S. output in three decades. (www.bloomberg.com)

November 5, 2014. OPEC members’ average crude price fell below $80 for the first time in four years as Saudi Arabia and other members of the group supplying 40 percent of the world’s oil maintained output amid slowing demand growth. The OPEC basket, the best measure of what the oil exporters earn per barrel, fell to $78.67, the group said. U.S. oil production rose to the highest in at least 31 years amid slowing global demand, helping drive crude into a bear market last month. The largest producers in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) reduced prices rather than cut output, with Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran offering the biggest discounts to buyers in Asia this month since at least 2009. The group will meet in Vienna on Nov. 27 to discuss whether to cut output to support prices. (www.bloomberg.com)

November 5, 2014. The Obama administration said it's monitoring oil markets as prices fall to a three-year low, though there’s no immediate indication that the government will take advantage and add to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The reserve, kept in underground caverns along the Gulf Coast, contained 691 million barrels of oil as of Oct. 31, the Department of Energy said. The capacity is 727 million barrels. West Texas Intermediate touched $75.84 a barrel, the lowest intraday price since Oct. 4, 2011 as Saudi Arabia price cuts deepened a selloff in crude. The drop has been a boon to U.S. consumers as the average retail price for a gallon of gasoline has fallen below $3 for the first time in almost four years. The reserve is maintained to compensate for disruptions in crude oil supplies. It last was filled to capacity at the end of 2009 and contains the equivalent of 94-day supply of oil imports, according to the Energy Department. (www.bloomberg.com)

November 5, 2014. Recent increases in U.S. crude oil production have sparked discussion on how this increase in supply will be used by U.S. refiners, given current limitations on exporting domestic crude. On October 30, EIA released a study that explored the relationships between crude oil and gasoline prices (Figure 1).

Key findings from the analysis include: The price of Brent crude oil, an international benchmark, is more important than the price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI), a domestic benchmark, for determining gasoline prices in all four U.S. regions studied, including the Midwest. The effect that a relaxation of current limitations on U.S. crude oil exports would have on U.S. gasoline prices depends on its effect on international crude prices, such as Brent, rather than its effect on domestic crude prices. A change in current limitations on crude oil exports could have implications for both domestic and international crude oil prices. Such a relaxation could raise the prices of domestically produced oil. If higher prices for domestic crude were to spur additional U.S. production than might otherwise occur, the increase to global crude oil supply could reduce the global price of crude. (www.eia.gov)

[INTERNATIONAL: POWER]

November 10, 2014. Abengoa has been awarded a contract by Hidroelectrica Laguna Azul to develop a 20MW hydroelectric power plant in the Mamacocha River in Arequipa (Peru). Under the contract, Abengoa will be responsible for the engineering, design and construction of the $50 mn Mamacocha hydroelectric plant. The plant will generate electricity which is enough to meet the requirement of 10,000 households. (www.energy-business-review.com)

November 10, 2014. JSC RusHydro has signed a preliminary agreement with China Three Gorges (CTG) to jointly develop reservoir-based flood-control hydropower projects in the Russian Far East. Under the agreement, a joint venture (JV) will be established by RusHydro with ownership of 51% and CTG with the remaining 49% for financing, constructing and operating up to 2,000 MW hydroelectric plants in Amur Oblast and Khabarovskiy Kray, Russia. The JV will evaluate and develop projects which include the 400MW Nizhne-Zeyskaya, 300 MW Selemdzhinskaya, 462 MW Giluyskaya and 600 MW Nizhne-Nimanskaya hydropower plants at an estimated cost of RUB230bn ($4.89 bn). (www.energy-business-review.com)

November 9, 2014. APR Energy has suspended power generation operations in Libya due to unfinished paperwork by the government. The temporary power company, which rents out 25 MW turbines and generators, said its plants at six sites in Libya were on standby until the matter was resolved. In July, General Electric Company of Libya (GECOL) extended APR's 450 MW power contract through to the first quarter of 2015, but the final parliamentary review process has been continuously delayed. (www.utilities-me.com)

November 7, 2014. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is offering $80 mn in syndicated loan for the construction of a 108 MW hydroelectric power plant in Dariali on the Tergi River, in north-eastern Georgia, US. EBRD has approved $40 mn of the total funding being provided to developer JSC Dariali Energy, while Dutch development bank FMO will offer $30 mn and Green Growth Fund will provide the remaining $10 mn. The project, which will play a key role in the development of hydropower resources in Georgia, is expected to generate 510GWh of energy annually. Additionally, the project will help to reduce carbon-based power generation and also cut reliance on imported fuels in the winter months. EBRD has invested about €2.2bn in more than 170 projects since the starting of its operations in Georgia. (www.energy-business-review.com)

November 5, 2014. Qatar has pledged to fund the purchase of fuel needed to operate Gaza's only power plant for a three-month period. Qatari Prime Minister Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al-Thani had also reaffirmed Qatar's support for the people of Palestine, especially those in the embattled Gaza Strip. Gaza's sole power plant went offline on July 29 after its main fuel tank was targeted by Israeli airstrikes. Even though the plant remains functional, it has stopped running due to Gaza's chronic fuel shortage. The Gaza Strip requires 360 MW of electricity per day – of which only 200 MW are currently available – to meet the needs of its roughly 1.9 million residents. Gaza currently has three sources for electricity: Israel, which provides 120 MW; Egypt, which supplies 28 MW; and Gaza's power plant, which generates between 40 and 60 MW daily. (www.worldbulletin.net)

November 11, 2014. Latin America’s largest open-pit coal mine is struggling to persuade some members of a small community in northeastern Colombia to relocate and may have to alter its mining strategy. The Cerrejon venture - owned by BHP Billiton Plc, Anglo American Plc and Glencore Plc - is in relocation talks with residents of Las Casitas, where dust is approaching levels set by the World Bank, Vice-President of Public Affairs Juan Carlos Restrepo said. Cerrejon has been negotiating for six years with residents in the Las Casitas area, near the Oreganal pit, and has reached a deal with 26 out of 64 families, Restrepo said. Resistance from some residents comes as Colombia’s government looks to boost coal production to counter a drop in revenue as thermal coal prices this month dropped to at least a seven-year low. The complex temporarily halted operations at several pits this year amid a severe drought in the northeastern province of La Guajira. Last year, the company exported 33.5 million metric tons of thermal coal, with the majority of Colombian coal exports going to European power producers including Electricite de France SA. Colombia’s Mining Code allows authorities to expropriate houses and land from families that fail to reach an agreement, with both voluntary and forced moves compensated with new homes and land, Restrepo said. Colombia’s government, faced with a 2015 budget shortfall of 12.5 trillion pesos ($6 billion), is attempting to increase production and royalty payments from resources industries amid slumping prices of oil and coal, Colombia’s two main exports. (www.bloomberg.com)

November 11, 2014. Oceanographers have detected isotopes linked to Japan’s wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant off California’s coast, though at levels far below those that could pose a measurable health risk. Volunteer ocean monitors collected the samples that tested positive for trace amounts of the isotope cesium-134 about 100 miles west of Eureka, California, the Massachusetts-based Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution said. Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant, which released “unprecedented levels” of radioactivity during the March 2011 accident, was the only conceivable source of the detected isotopes, Woods Hole oceanographer Ken Buesseler said. Explosions during the accident, during which three reactors suffered meltdowns, sent a burst of radioactivity into the atmosphere, while water used to cool overheating fuel rods flowed into the ocean in the weeks after the disaster. Lower levels of radiation have continued to trickle into the ocean via contaminated groundwater. (www.bloomberg.com)

November 11, 2014. Germany is looking to increase its investment in Pakistan's energy sector, provided companies are reassured about the security situation, Chancellor Angela Merkel said during a visit by Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Merkel said Germany's KfW state development bank was already involved in projects in Pakistan including hydro power plants. Sharif said German firms, some of them world leaders in renewable energy technology thanks to the country's shift to green energy and away from nuclear power, were keen to invest. Germany is Pakistan's fourth-biggest trading partner, and the largest within the European Union, Sharif said. (www.reuters.com)

November 10, 2014. Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) and Russia are planning to sign an agreement for the construction of two nuclear power plants on Iran’s southern Gulf shores. Under the terms of the agreement, Russia will construct two 1,000 MW nuclear power plants next to Iran's only existing plant in the southern Gulf port city of Bushehr. The Russian-built 1000 MW Bushehr power plant was handed over to Iran in September 2013. Iran is planning to construct a total of 20 power plants in the future, including four in Bushehr alone, aimed at decreasing its reliance on oil and gas. Meanwhile, Russia is also seeking to develop 10 new conventional electrical power plants in Iran. (www.energy-business-review.com)

November 7, 2014. Regional authorities in Japan approved the restart of the idled Sendai nuclear plant of Kyushu Electric Power Co, paving the way for a revival of the stalled industry more than three years after the Fukushima disaster. The move represents a victory for the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, which has defended the importance of nuclear power for resource-starved Japan and pushed to restart its fleet of 48 offline reactors. The two-reactor Sendai plant, located 1,000 km (600 miles) southwest of Tokyo in Kagoshima prefecture, won an important endorsement for the restart from the local township. The Sendai plant is still unlikely to reopen until next year as the utility still needs to pass operational safety checks. Japan has said it would defer to regional authorities to approve any restart. The Sendai plant faces few obstacles, having secured approval from the host city, its mayor, the prefectural assembly and now an official endorsement from its governor. If the move goes through, the Sendai reactors would become the first to restart under a new, independent regulator formed after a massive earthquake and tsunami set off multiple meltdowns at Tokyo Electric Power Co's Fukushima Daiichi plant in 2011. Japan has been forced to import expensive fossil fuels to replace atomic power, which supplied around 30 percent of the country's electricity before the 2011 disaster. (www.downstreamtoday.com)

November 7, 2014. Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was scheduled to arrive in China looking to secure delayed energy deals to help boost his nation’s economy. More than two dozen agreements will be signed with China during the two-day trip. They will mostly be related to power generation and development in the southwestern city of Gwadar, where China is helping to build a port. Chinese President Xi Jinping had been expected to sign $34 billion of investment deals during that trip. Sharif announced plans to construct a civil nuclear power plant with China’s help in November last year to help meet the nation’s power demand. He is visiting before the summit of leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. Power outages last as long as 18 hours a day in some areas. Blackouts have sparked violent street protests, shut factories in the past and were a key reason for the defeat of former president Asif Ali Zardari’s party in 2013. (www.bloomberg.com)

November 5, 2014. A series of mysterious drone flights over French nuclear reactors recently is exposing a security threat that has authorities scrambling. There have been more than a dozen sightings so far, including one, of small unmanned aircraft. They haven’t inflicted damage nor has anyone publicly claimed responsibility, according to atomic operators and French ministers. In spite of government assurances that a probe is underway, the flights have been going on for more than a month. Electricite de France SA (EDF) operates the 58 nuclear reactors that dot the countryside across France, making the nation the most reliant in the world on atomic power. Following the 2011 meltdown at Fukushima, the French nuclear regulator organized so-called stress tests to gauge how resilient installations were to a serious accident. Security issues such as threats from terrorism and airplane crashes were left out of the exercise. The drones used around the nuclear plants weigh between three and four kilograms and can’t do much more than take photographs or video, according to Jean-Christophe Drai, chief executive officer of Koliane, a drone consulting company whose customers include Paris airports and France’s civil aviation authority DGAC. There are about 900 commercial drone operators in France and an unknown number of private users. (www.bloomberg.com)

 [RENEWABLE ENERGY / CLIMATE CHANGE TRENDS]

November 11, 2014. Responding to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call to global manufacturers, Chinese company Trina Solar is planning to set up a facility over the next few years to "make in India, supply in India and even export from India". Officials of the company, the world's fourth largest manufacturer of photovoltaic (PV) modules, participated in the World Economic Forum held in Delhi to actively look for a joint venture partner and assess the Indian market. Trina Solar said that from next year the company would start expanding outside China. The company expected to double its revenue share from India to 10%. In India, where it has been operating for three years, Trina Solar has a market share of over 10%. Of the total 2,700 MW solar power capacity in the country, it has supplied solar power to projects with 280 MW capacity. (economictimes.indiatimes.com)

November 11, 2014. Reliance Power has started generation in its 100 MW Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) project in Rajasthan. With this project, RPower's generation capacity has increased to 5,285 MW, which includes 5,100 MW of thermal capacity and 185 MW of renewable energy based capacity.

Rajasthan Sun Technique Energy, a wholly owned subsidiary of RPower, was awarded the project in December 2010, based on international competitive bidding conducted by NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam, a subsidiary of NTPC, under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission. The project has 25 per cent reserve margin to meet 25 year power purchase agreement (PPA) obligations. (economictimes.indiatimes.com)

November 11, 2014. The Punjab government has notified the Net Metering Policy for installation of grid interactive rooftop solar power projects in homes, institutions, commercial/private/governmental buildings, warehouses and industries in the state. According to Punjab Energy Development Agency (PEDA), the state government's nodal agency for promotion of renewable energy, there is a potential to generate over 100 MW of solar power from rooftop solar projects. Under this policy, solar power plant will be installed on rooftops. The power generated during daytime can be used for the building during night-time and if there's an excess or no usage, it could be fed to the state power utility grid. Further, a bi-directional meter is installed in the supply line for registering of import and export of power. The bill would be issued by state power utility, Punjab State Power Corporation Ltd, after the adjustment of import and export of power.

Under the policy, solar photovoltaic power projects of capacity ranging from 1 KW to 1 MW can be installed. The maximum capacity of solar power projects to be installed in a building would be 80 per cent of the sanctioned electricity load of that building. Under the scheme, the government of India provides 30 per cent subsidy for installation of solar power plants of capacity ranging from 1 KW to 500 KW. Unveiling the new policy, Punjab's non-conventional energy minister Bikram Singh Majithia said that the state was targeting to generate 250 MW of power from solar projects. Currently, the total installed capacity in the state is 58 MW of solar photovoltaic power and the various projects are on different stages of construction. He said that Union New & Renewable Energy Minister Piyush Goyal during his last visit to Punjab had in principle approved a 2,000 MW solar power park and that the state government had roped in local bodies to develop these. (www.business-standard.com)

November 10, 2014. Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said the World Bank has agreed in principle to consider a mega project in the state under Assam Agricultural Competitiveness Project (AACP) proposed by the state. The new project, 'Assam Agricultural Commercialization and Rural Transformation Project', worth ` 12,000 crore, was submitted to the Centre and the proposal has been cleared by the Ministry of Agriculture and was pending with the Planning Commission. World Bank's Country Director for South Asia Region Rajni Khanna appreciated the progress in all sectors under AACP with particular reference to successful innovative activities including the establishment of a state-wide groundwater monitoring system, farmer producer organization and a pilot program of using solar power for running irrigation pumpsets. A total of 4,97,612 beneficiaries in about 1,09,406 beneficiary groups across agriculture, fisheries, livestock, dairy and forestry sectors have benefited so far. (www.dnaindia.com)

November 10, 2014. The Morbe dam on Dhavari River in Navi Mumbai is going to house something unique: a solar panel installation big enough to generate 20 MW of power. A three-year-old company that is carrying out the ` 162 crore project claims the installation to be the largest in the world on a dam barrier, and the first in India. India already has several solar power installations on top of canals, the biggest being an under construction 10 MW project on a Narmada canal in Gujarat, but none on a sloping wall. To make matters complicated, the Morbe gravity dam has an earthen slope, said Rahul Gupta, an IIT-Roorkee alumnus and founder of Rays Power Experts, which got the contract from the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation. The project is scheduled to be completed by the end of March next year. Solar panels will cover the entire stretch of the dam barrier. Gupta's first assignment was in 2010, the year he graduated. He helped an investor set up a 1 MW facility in his home state of Rajasthan, in his pursuit to make money to set up his own plant one day. The following years saw Rajasthan becoming the centre of the proliferation of the solar power industry, with increasing focus of the government and private sector on clean energy. Rajasthan has the second most installed solar capacity in the country — according to Bridge to India, a market intelligence and consultancy firm, the state had 679 MW of solar power capacity at the end of May this year, compared with leader Gujarat's 859 MW. Gupta was one of those who benefited, and he founded Rays Power Experts in 2011. At the end of this September, the company had an order book of ` 500 crore, and Gupta expects it to double to ` 1,000 crore by March. The company has orders to install 65 megawatt and is also planning to expand its own power generation capacity — it has a 3 MW facility at Gajner in Rajasthan. According to Gupta, bagging big projects in one go is not what he is looking for. (economictimes.indiatimes.com)

November 8, 2014. Tripura's 176-year-old capital Agartala has been awarded the clean and green city award by a New Delhi-based urban policy and development experts group, Agartala municipal corporation mayor Prafulla Jit Sinha said. With a city population of around five lakh, the Agartala Municipal Corporation is northeast India's oldest municipal body. Agartala is also set to become northeast India's first city to have energy efficient illumination with light emitting diode (LED). Agartala will be the second city in eastern India after Kolkata where LED street lighting is being installed. So far, Hyderabad and Vijayawada have LED lighting systems. (economictimes.indiatimes.com)

November 7, 2014. Since energy supply will be the basis for the future economic and social development, there was the need to develop cost effective renewable energy technologies, Dr Alagusundaram, DDG (Agri Engineering), Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) said. At present total renewable energy based power generation in India was 28,000 MW out of total generation of 2,30,000 MW, which worked out to be 12.17 per cent only, he said. Power requirement in Tamil Nadu was more than 12,000 MW as against the supply of about 10,000 MW and there existed a potential for exploitation to the order of 80,000 MW, he said.

India's energy consumption has been increasing at one of the fastest rates in the world due to population growth and economic development. Commercial primary energy consumption has grown by about 700 per cent in the last four decades, he said. Among the different renewable energy sources, wind energy was currently making a significant contribution to the installed capacity of power generation and was emerging as a competitive option, Alagusundaram said. (economictimes.indiatimes.com)

November 6, 2014. Gujarat Chief Minister (CM) Anandi Patel inaugurated the world's tallest hybrid wind tower near Naniber village in Kutch district. The 120 metre-tall wind tower is installed by Suzlon Energy near the Naniber village, where the company also owns Asia's largest wind farm, whose power generation capacity touched 1000 MW recently. Patel said that Gujarat has potential to generate 10,000 MW of electricity from wind power and added that the Gujarat government has given due importance to this sector, which made Gujarat a power-surplus state. Patel said that 14 years ago, Gujarat was a power deficient state, since it had only coal and gas-based power plants. Due to shortage of coal and irregular supply of gas from the Centre, power generation remained affected. To overcome this situation, Gujarat shifted it's focus to the renewable energy sector due to which Gujarat's total power generation rose from mere a 4,000 MW to 15,000 MW, Patel said. Gujarat stands second in country after Tamil Nadu in generation of electricity from wind power, the CM said. During various Vibrant Gujarat Summits, agreements were signed with companies to set up wind farms in Kutch to generate 2,000 MW of power. So far, Suzlon has installed windmills having 1,080 MW of power generation capacity, she said. (www.dnaindia.com)

November 6, 2014. The land on which Asia's largest solar park in Charanka, Gujarat has been set up has come under investigation. The state revenue department has begun investigation into alleged land purchase scam where it has been claimed that Gujarat Power Corporation Ltd (GPCL) purchased land for the solar park from a select group of individuals at a price about 20 times the market rate prevailing in the area. The 590 MW solar park in Charanka village is spread across 5,384 acres in Patan district of the state. (www.business-standard.com)

November 6, 2014. Power solutions company Jakson is investing almost ` 350 crore in setting up two solar power plants in power-starved Uttar Pradesh. The plants, being set up in Lalitpur district of the arid Bundelkhand region, would collectively generate 40 MW of grid power. While, one unit of 10 MW is likely to be up and running by March 2015, another plant of 30 MW would start generating by March 2016, Jakson Engineers Ltd said. Pan-India, the company is targetting on-grid solar power generation of 200 MW by March 2017. Jakson Group has business interests in power generation, power distribution, solar power, electrical contracting etc. The company has a manufacturing facility in Greater Noida, where it recently invested ` 75 crore to ramp up production capacity. Jakson plans to invest almost ` 400 crore in the new facility. With the centre and different state governments giving emphasis to solar energy segment and the rising awareness amongst people, the demand for solar products has been rising steadily in India. The company is targetting ` 650 crore revenue from the solar business by March 2017 compared to ` 127 crore in 2014. (www.business-standard.com)

November 6, 2014. Indian Railways has decided to power a fleet of 4,000 locomotives with alternative fuels such as bio-diesel, as part of its initiative to spread awareness about a clean environment and decrease the dependence on diesel. Diesel locomotives cater to a large segment of rail traffic in the country, hauling both passenger and freight trains. Indian Railways consumes two billion litres of diesel every year. For this, the Railways have to foot a bill of ` 15,000 crore yearly. Indian Railways has also set up Indian Railways Organization for Alternate Fuels to promote bio-diesels and other environmentally benign alternative fuels. It has also been given the mandate to facilitate setting up of transetherification facilities to convert plant residues into bio-diesels. These facilities could be set up in India in the public-private partnership mode. (www.business-standard.com)

November 5, 2014. The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) is planning to use the waste to generate electricity. For the purpose, the KMC has identified a five-acre plot in Rajarhat, which it had bought from the HIDCO, to set up a waste-to-energy plant in a joint-venture with a private body, Member Mayor-in-Council (MMIC) Solid Waste Management Debobrato Majumdar said. The plot situated near the Bhangor area of Rajarhat will be given on free lease for 25 years to a private firm which will have to bear the entire cost of setting up the power plant there, he said. The KMC will provide 600 metric tonnes of garbage daily to the plant for the generation of power. KMC will shortly float a tender globally for the private partner and a consultant has already been appointed to set up conditions of the lease, the tipping fee as well as the royalty to be included in the tender, Majumdar said. A company with an earlier experience of setting up a waste-to-energy plant would be given preference, he said. This venture would not only be good earning opportunity for the KMC but it would also help it in managing the huge garbage generated in the city daily, he said. Kolkata produces around 4,700 metric tonnes of garbage daily, out of which 65 per cent is collected from households. The waste is dumped in two places -- in 31.50 acres of land in Dhapa and the other one in the 3.22 acre of land in Garden Reach. (economictimes.indiatimes.com)

November 11, 2014. Nordex SE, a German wind-turbine maker, won an order to supply its turbines to a 45 MW wind farm in Lithuania. Nordex will from spring 2015 install 19 of its 2.4 MW turbines at the Mazeikiai project in the northwest of the country, the Hamburg-based company said. Nordex will also service the machines for 15 years, it said. (www.bloomberg.com)

November 11, 2014. JinkoSolar Holding Co., a Chinese solar manufacturer, arranged $20 million in financing from Wells Fargo & Co. to support its U.S. business. Jinko will use the two-year credit agreement for working capital and business operations, the Shangrao, China-based solar company said. The company received 5.9 percent of its revenue from the U.S. in 2013, up from 2.2 percent the prior year. The company signed a five-year, 1 billion yuan ($163.3 million) financing agreement with China’s first private lender China Minsheng Banking Corp. in July to support its operations there, including acquisitions and power project development. (www.bloomberg.com)

November 11, 2014. The G20 group of major economies spend $88 billion a year on fossil-fuel exploration, five years after pledging to phase out industry subsidies, a study showed. Spending of $17 billion and $11.3 billion by state-backed oil companies Saudi Arabian Oil Co. and Petroleo Brasileiro SA are the biggest components in the funding compiled by the Overseas Development Institute and Oil Change International. The total also includes subsidies and tax breaks from governments, and public financing through development banks. The expenditure is adding to carbon emissions at a time when those same governments are trying to devise a new global agreement to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) since industrialization. United Nations scientists said the world can only burn a limited amount of fuel before it becomes unlikely that target is met. G20 nations in 2009 agreed to phase out “inefficient fossil-fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption,” without defining their criteria. Ministers from those countries and another 170 will gather in Lima, Peru, next month to draft early texts of an agreement to fight climate change that they aim to complete at the end of 2015 in Paris. (www.bloomberg.com)

November 10, 2014. Ergon Peru SAC received a 15-year contract to deliver solar electricity in Peru. The country’s Supervisory Agency for Investment in Energy and Mining awarded the contract to the developer through a Nov. 7 auction. The goal is to supply power to isolated areas that aren’t connected to the national grid. Ergon will initially supply power to 150,000 homes throughout the country, the agency said. (www.bloomberg.com)

November 10, 2014. Britain's Environment Agency said it would likely approve environmental permits for shale gas firm Cuadrilla Resources at a site in northwest England. The approval, which is pending a second-stage consultation during which the public can comment on the agency's draft permits, would be a next step for Cuadrilla to press ahead with a four-well exploration programme at Preston New Road in Lancashire.

Britain is betting on the development of shale gas extraction to counter a decline in energy resources from the North Sea, but concerns about the environmental impact of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, used to extract shale gas have caused local protests. If approved, Cuadrilla's operations will be subject to stringent environmental rules about the disposal of wastewater used in the exploration process which the agency has put in place to protect ground and surface water. (www.rigzone.com)

November 10, 2014. Oncor Electric Delivery, owner of the largest power-line network in Texas, wants to spend more than $2 billion on batteries to solve the problem of fluctuating output from wind and solar. The company is asking state legislators to change a law that prevents it from owning power plants before it invests in battery storage. It will then propose a spending plan to regulators “within months,” Dallas-based Oncor, said. Oncor has talked to Tesla Motors Inc. about using its batteries for the grid. Use of batteries to supply electricity to the grid on demand would help with intermittent wind and solar power, which only generate when the sun shines or winds blow. Texas generates the most wind power of any state. (www.bloomberg.com)

November 10, 2014. Kobelco Eco-Solutions Co. and Idemitsu Kosan Co. will build a 6 MW wood biomass power station in western Japan. The plant will be set up in Fukui prefecture, Tokyo-based Idemitsu said. The 4 billion yen ($35 million) project will start producing electricity in April 2016. (www.bloomberg.com)

November 7, 2014. United Nations climate envoys are considering how to slot Chinese provinces and U.S. states into the same global carbon market as nations after 2020, according to International Energy Agency (IEA). Negotiators need to agree on rules to track emission permits while keeping them “flexible enough to allow high-quality carbon markets to flourish and link up,” Christina Hood, a climate policy analyst at the agency in Paris, said. About 200 nations are negotiating the first draft of the international climate accord over the next six months. Allowing smaller jurisdictions to link would enlarge the global market, the value of which has dropped 60 percent since 2011. The European Union, the world’s largest emissions trading area, wants to limit trading in the main global system to countries and groups of nations, the bloc said in a Sept. 29 submission. Hood declined to specify locations that should qualify for linking under any climate deal to be struck next year, which is meant to apply at the end of the decade. California and Quebec, which together created the largest trading area for emissions in North America this year, are wooing nine northeastern U.S. states that started a system in 2008. California and Quebec have shown that two distinct regions can combine trading, Barbara Hendricks, Germany’s environment minister, said. Unlike in the 1997 Kyoto agreement, which includes targets for less than 15 percent of global emissions and only some developed nations, climate contributions made by countries next year should probably not be legally binding at the UN level, U.S. climate envoy Todd Stern said. It’s unclear whether the world’s biggest economy will muster political support to cap its emissions. China and the U.S. have ramped up talks ahead of UN negotiations next year in Paris, where nations will attempt to forge a climate change agreement that for the first time would cover both industrialized and developing countries. Global carbon programs will have a transaction value of about 38 billion euros ($47 billion) this year, little changed from 2013 and less than half the 99 billion-euro record in 2011. The value, which may fall a third year depending on prices in the next two months, will probably rebound to a record by 2016, with the EU program making up more than 90 percent. A key for envoys is to make sure that an emission reduction counted in one nation for its target does not also get counted in another after a carbon credit is traded, according to Hood. (www.bloomberg.com)

November 6, 2014. President Barack Obama and Republicans now in charge of Congress may find common ground on energy issues like nuclear power, wind turbines and efficiency even as they continue to fight over climate change and drilling access. Energy analysts and lobbyists said energy policy is ripe for compromise in part because the political battle lines are sometimes based as much on geography as they are on ideology. Dealing with atomic waste, extending renewable tax credits and promoting energy conservation are issues that may offer a chance for agreement, possibly aiding companies including Exelon Corp, Siemens AG and Johnson Controls Inc. Republicans will have a too-slim majority to pass big-ticket items like blocking the Environmental Protection Agency from limiting carbon dioxide emissions or forcing approval of the Keystone XL pipeline over a veto from Obama. That would require 67 senators to vote to override. (www.bloomberg.com)

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