Energy News Monitor | Volume XI; Issue 45

[High Oil Price Risk Remains]

                             “As a country with one of the highest rates of growth in demand for oil, India must keep its eye on how the oil markets evolve. Hope of low oil prices on account of shrinking market for oil, carbon penalties, growing use of electric vehicles or unconventional oil production may be unfounded. The price of oil will be determined by the cost of the incremental barrel and this is unlikely to be affected by the presumed reduction in the size of the oil market…”

Energy News

[GOOD]

Greater investment in power transmission is likely to ease power outages!                                   

                                                                                                [BAD]

Central scheme of gas pooling is a benefit for power plants but a burden for government budgets!

[UGLY]

The need to probe coal bids shows that any system of allocating resources can be gamed! 

NEWS BRIEF

[NATIONAL: OIL & GAS]

April 21, 2015. With easing of Western sanctions against Iran in sight, India has made a renewed pitch to get rights to develop ONGC-discovered Farzad-B gas field in the Persian Gulf. A high level delegation compromising of officials from the ministries of finance and petroleum as well as executives from ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL) and Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) visited Tehran to re-engage with Iran. The talks centered on getting development rights to the Farzad-B gas field in the Farsi block as well as on the possibilities of setting up gas-based petrochemical/urea plant in Iran. Besides getting rights of the Farzad-B field, discussions focused on putting up petrochemical projects especially in Asalouyeh Special Economic Zone and Iran's southeastern port city of Chabahar. OVL had in 2008 discovered the Farzad-B gas field in its Farsi exploration block in the Persian Gulf. To pressure India to act, Tehran last year put the field on the list of blocks it wants to auction in future, it has however not yet cancelled OVL's exploration license for the Farsi block which gives it the right to develop the discoveries it has made. OVL is the operator of the Farsi block that lies north of Qatar. It has 40 per cent interest in the 3,500 sq km block. State refiner Indian Oil Corp (IOC) too has 40 per cent stake, while the remaining 20 percent is with Oil India Ltd (OIL). The Farzad-B gas field may hold an estimated 21.68 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of in-place reserves, of which 12.8 Tcf can be recovered. The reserves in Farzad-B are almost thrice the largest gas field in India. (www.dnaindia.com)

April 20, 2015. Good quality light oil has been established in a discovery made in an offshore Brazilian block where Videocon Industries and Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) hold 40 percent interest. Brazilian national oil company Petrobras has completed formation test to assess the potential of a petroleum deposit in a well in the BM-SEAL-11 concession in the SEAL-M-426 block in ultra-deep waters of the Sergipe-Alagoas Basin. Drilling has identified two reservoir intervals of light oil and gas - the top with a thickness of 44 meters, and the bottom 11 meters thick, the bottom zone being a new discovery for the area. The well is located 102.7 kms from the city of Aracaju and 10.3 kms from the first discovery well 'Farfan', in a water depth of 2,467 meters. The consortium partners will continue implementation of the Discovery Assessment Plan (PAD) as approved by the Brazilian regulatory authority ANP. Petrobras holds 60 percent interest in the concession and IBV Brasil -- a Brazilian joint venture company equally held by Videocon Energy Brazil Ltd, a wholly-owned overseas subsidiary of Videocon, and BPRL Ventures NV, a wholly-owned subsidiary of BPCL -- holds the remaining 40 percent. (profit.ndtv.com)

April 19, 2015. Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has agreed to take over a part of the abandoned assets of the western offshore Tapti gas field from its joint venture partners Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) and BG once output falls to zero. With Tapti output declining rapidly, partners in the Panna-Mukta and Tapti fields — RIL, BG and ONGC, have decided to abandon the field. Gas output from the field has almost halved to 14.2 billion cubic feet (bcf) in 2014-15 while oil production was 0.2 million barrels, down 22 percent from previous fiscal. ONGC said the company plans to use the Tapti field assets, which include sub-sea pipelines and gas gathering stations as well as process platform, to advance production of gas from its neighbouring Daman field. The assets include Tapti gas processing platform, which received gas from sub-sea wells, removes water and other impurities before transmitting it to onshore. ONGC will lay a small length of pipeline from the Daman field to the process platform, which is connected by a 70-km pipeline to its facility at Hazira. The company is investing ` 5,219 crore in bringing to production the Daman gas fields. Production is expected by July 2016 at the rate of 2 million standard cubic meters per day and peak output of 8.35 mmscmd of gas and 9,286 barrels of condensate per day is likely by 2018-19. ONGC holds 40 percent interest in the Panna-Mukta and Tapti fields while RIL and BP have 30 percent each. The joint venture will continue to operate the Panna-Mukta field, which primarily is an oil bearing field located 90-km north-west of Mumbai in the Arabian Sea. It produced 7.2 million barrels of oil and 70.7 bcf of gas. According to RIL, the oil production from Panna-Mukta was almost flat while gas registered 8 percent increase. Primarily gas-bearing Tapti field is located 160 km north-west of Mumbai and is currently producing about one million standard cubic meters per day and even this output is expected to taper off to zero before the year end. The Panna-Mukta fields are expected to stay in production till fiscal 2019. (timesofindia.indiatimes.com)

April 16, 2015. Aussie oil and gas explorer Oilex said its Cambay basin discoveries in Gujarat hold 206 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of gas and 8 million barrels of condensate reserves in just one zone. Oilex said Unrisked Contingent Resources in zone Y together with another zone, X, comes to 720 Bcf gas and 52.8 million barrels of condensate. In oil and gas terminology, 2P reserves as considered more accurate with 50 percent certainty of being recovered or produced. Contingent resource have only 10 percent chance of being produced. The Cambay block has a third zone, Z and contingent resource across the three zone may be as high as 12 trillion cubic feet. Oilex said the new estimate on the X and Y zones would provide a strong foundation for the immediate development of the Cambay field. Oilex expects to begin production from the Cambay-73 well in May and is also working towards production from the recently drilled Cambay-77H well. It plans to drill up to four wells this fiscal. The Cambay Field is located around 10 km from the gas pipeline network with spare capacity. The 2P Reserves are anticipated to support a plateau gas production rate of 50 million standard cubic feet per day, whilst together with contingent resources the plateau gas production rate of could be 125-250 million standard cubic feet per day. (www.business-standard.com)

April 15, 2015. In order to take advantage of shale gas & oil boom in the US, Indian Oil Corp (IOC) is reportedly looking at entering petrochemical manufacturing in that country. IOC is keen on having a stake in an upcoming project, which is still in the planning or is yet to reach financial closure stage. The finalisation of the deal is still a long way and will mostly fructify only after the 2016 presidential election in the United States (US), where gas exports policy has divided the industry. While energy companies want no control on the exports of shale gas, the chemical & petrochemicals companies (which can use gas to make petrochemical products) have urged the government to put some curb on the exports. Indian Oil already has a presence in the US shale market through its 10 percent stake in Carrizo’s liquid rich shale assets in the Niobrara basin in Colorado. (www.business-standard.com)

April 20, 2015. India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has sold a May naphtha cargo at about $25 a tonne above Middle East quotes on a free-on-board (FOB) basis, down nearly 11 percent and 33 percent versus two April cargoes it sold from Hazira, traders said. The buyer of the 34,500-tonne cargo for May 4-5 loading from Hazira could be Total but this could not be confirmed as sellers and buyers usually do not comment on their deals, traders said.

The fresh premium ONGC has garnered for the Hazira cargo reflected a softer sentiment as talk of high volumes of naphtha arriving in Asia next month from Europe/the Mediterranean have dragged prices down. ONGC had previously sold two April cargoes out of Hazira at premiums of $37 and at least $28 a tonne to Middle East quotes on a FOB basis respectively. It also exports naphtha from Mumbai. (in.reuters.com)

April 16, 2015. Saudi Aramco and Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) have not yet concluded a term contract to import diesel and gasoline, fanning market speculation that the long-standing annual deal may not be renewed. A deal has normally been signed by the first quarter, but negotiations have gone on longer at a time when Saudi Arabiahas become less reliant on imports following refinery expansions.

The term deal talks had stalled because the companies had not been able to agree a price yet. While Saudi Arabia is the world's top crude exporter, a lack of refineries to process crude into fuel products has meant the kingdom has traditionally relied on imports, largely from Asia. But a industry source who supplies products to Saudi Arabia said a deal might not be reached since there was less logic this year on both sides and RIL could use the barrels itself particularly given higher freight rates. (timesofindia.indiatimes.com)

April 21, 2015. Reliance Industries’ credit metrics will improve over the next two years on completion of petrochemical and refinery projects, Moody’s said. The projects are petcoke gasification plant at its refinery, refinery off-gas cracker in petrochemicals, polyester/aromatics capacity expansion and import of ethane from the US. RIL’s profit before interest and depreciation increased by 8 per cent during the quarter ended March 31, 2015 because of the improved performance of its refining segment and despite revenues falling by 26 per cent. Revenues fell due to a slide in crude oil prices, which declined by more than 50 per cent since June 2014.

Moody’s report said revenues from RIL’s refining segment fell 31 per cent as crude oil prices plunged. Moody’s report said that RIL reported gross refining margins of USD 10.1 per barrel for Q4 versus USD 7.3 for the previous three-month period. As for the company’s petrochemical business, the segment recorded stable performance while the earnings from its upstream segment fell, in line with falling crude oil prices. (www.financialexpress.com)

April 20, 2015. A hydro-carbon vision document on the natural resources available in the Northeastern region will soon be released by the government, Lok Sabha was informed. Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said the vision document will cover all natural resources available in the Northeast, as well as on possibility of finding hidden natural assets like oil and gas.

Pradhan said the government broadly follows the order of priority in the matter of allocation of domestic gas, which is: city gas distribution network for domestic and transport sectors, existing gas-based urea plants, existing gas-based LPG plants, existing grid connected and gas-based power plants and steel, petrochemicals and refineries for feedstock purposes etc.

He said the prevailing gas utilisation policy of the government does not envisage any reservation in the matter of allocation of domestic gas, thereby implying that a plant should be in position to consume the gas as and when it is available. The Minister said due to less demand of imported LNG, out of 62.10 million standard cubic meters a day (mmscmd) of total re-gasification capacity, 17.55 mmscmd remained unutilised. In power and fertiliser sectors, installed capacity was much less than the demand projected by a working group, he said. (www.business-standard.com)

April 20, 2015. Assam has asked the Union petroleum and natural gas ministry to make arrangement for supply of natural gas from central public sector undertakings (PSUs) for Assam's thermal power plants. Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi told Dharmendra Pradhan, Union petroleum and natural gas ministry, that Assam required increased thermal power generation to meet its increasing demand and asked the Union minister to make arrangement for natural gas for Namrup and Lakwa thermal power stations. Gogoi requested that the Centre should allocate on nomination basis the small gas fields to Assam state PSUs for exploitation of gas. On royalty on crude oil, Gogoi requested Pradhan to take "steps" so that Assam gets royalty on actual market price and not on the basis of heavily discounted sale price. (www.business-standard.com)

April 20, 2015. Government has rejected British Petroleum (BP) plc's application for selling jet fuel to airlines on the ground that its investment does not qualify to get a retailing licence, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said. BP Exploration (Alpha) Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of BP plc, had on June 11, 2014 submitted an application for authorisation to market aviation turbine fuel (ATF) claiming to have invested USD 477 million in the country.

The Oil ministry in March wrote to Europe's second- largest oil company saying that its USD 477 million investment in India till date does not qualify it to begin selling jet fuel to airlines. He said that of the USD 477 million BP claimed to have invested in India, USD 259 million was said to a capital investment and another USD 2.3 billion was proposed to be further invested. BP's USD 7.2 billion spending in buying 30 percent stake in 21 exploration blocks of RIL is not being considered as capital investment. BP is keen to enter the booming aviation market in Asia's third-largest economy where ATF demand is expected to rise by 3-4 percent annually over the next few years. (zeenews.india.com)

April 16, 2015. An Indian delegation will visit Iran to scout for investment opportunities ahead of an anticipated nuclear deal between the OPEC-member and world powers that would soften sanctions against the country. Officials from India's finance and oil ministries and executives from ONGC Videsh and Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd are part of the delegation that will hold meeting with their Iranian counterparts. India is Iran's biggest oil client after China although its imports from Tehran have declined under pressure from western sanctions. New Delhi's oil imports from Tehran have eased from 370,000 bpd in 2010/11 to about 220,000 million tonnes in 2014/15 under pressure from international sanctions. Iran and six world powers reached a framework nuclear agreement on April 2, spurring hopes for a final deal by end-June that would lift economic sanctions imposed by the West against Tehran's disputed nuclear programme. Apart from seeking more oil at better terms and other investment opportunities in the energy sector, India will push for development rights at the Farzad-B gas field in Farsi block. (in.reuters.com)

April 15, 2015. The government plans to auction 69 small and marginal oilfields of state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) and Oil India Ltd (OIL) to private companies, on a new revenue-sharing model. The petroleum ministry has floated a note for the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs for auctioning the fields that state-owned firms are “surrendering” because they were uneconomical to develop due to the government’s subsidy sharing mechanism. The fields will be auctioned on the basis of revenue share or the share of oil and gas, a bidder offers to the government upfront, and work programme. Companies, offering the maximum revenue share or percentage of oil and gas to the government and committing to do more work, will win the field. The weightage for revenue share will be 80 percent while 20 percent would be for work programme that may include drilling of exploratory and development wells and seismic studies. ONGC and OIL too are likely to bid for the fields, which they had originally discovered. As many as 63 discovered oil and gas fields are being surrendered by ONGC and another six by OIL. Developing these small and marginal fields was uneconomical after paying for fuel subsidies. ONGC and OIL have to pay up to $56 per barrel from the revenue they earn from selling oil produced from their fields, to help subsidise domestic cooking gas (LPG) and kerosene. After the subsidy payouts, they are left with hardly any money to operate a small or marginal field. If ONGC and OIL win the fields in the auction, they will not have to pay fuel subsidy on them. The fuel subsidy payouts are only for fields allocated to the two firms on nomination basis and they don't have to share the same on blocks they won in bidding under New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) since 1999. The marginal field will be treated at par with NELP blocks, they said. The ministry is reasoning the auctioning of the marginal fields to they being uneconomic for a large firm with huge overheads to develop or bring to production. Smaller firms with a fraction of operating cost can develop them at a much faster and economic rate. The revenue sharing model is a shift from the much-criticised production sharing contract regime where blocks were allocated to firms that bid the highest amount of work in the area. It allowed the firms to recover all their cost before sharing profits with the government, a regime which was criticised by the Comptroller and Auditor General as one that provides incentive to operators to keep raising cost so as to postpone government share. ONGC holds about 165 marginal fields (79 offshore and 86 onshore). Of which, 63 are being surrendered for auction. Marginal fields were given to ONGC before the licensing rounds on nomination basis. Hydrocarbons resources are locked up in these fields, but they cannot be produced economically on a standalone basis, or with a conventional approach. Of the 165 fields, with total ultimate reserves of 340 million tonnes, operations are going on in 139 and work is yet to start on 26. (www.business-standard.com)

 [NATIONAL: POWER]

April 21, 2015. The Central Electricity Authority (CEA) in a recent letter to the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) has said that the project capacity of the Karcham Wangtoo Hydro Electic Project in Himachal Pradesh will have to be maintained at 1,000 MW. The project is part of the two hydro plants of Jaiprakash Power Ventures Ltd for which Sajjan Jindal’s JSW Energy had agreed to pay Rs 9,700 crore. However, the deal’s enterprise valuation was based on the Karcham Wangtoo project having 1,091 MW generation capacity and 300 MW for the Bapsa II Project, both in Himachal Pradesh. The Karcham Wangtoo project’s capacity caused an earlier agreement with Reliance Power to break down. While the Jaypee Group has installed a 1,200 MW capacity at the location, its techno-economic clearance was for only 1,000 MW. Both the CEA and the Himachal Pradesh State Government had expressed safety concerns on allowing the plant to operate at 1,200 MW capacity. Jaiprakash Power Ventures while submitting the tariff petition for 2014-19 had stated a project cost of ` 6,900 crore for 1,091 MW for the Karcham Wantoo project. (www.thehindubusinessline.com)

April 20, 2015. State-owned power equipment maker BHEL has commissioned a 250 MW coal-based thermal power plant in Gujarat. The unit has been commissioned at the Gujarat State Electricity Corporation Ltd's (GSECL) Sikka thermal power station (TPS) by Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL), on EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) basis, the company said. Two units of 120 MW each, supplied and executed earlier by BHEL are already in operation at Sikka. Another 250 MW unit, presently under execution at Sikka TPS, is also in an advanced stage of commissioning, it said. GSECL has recently entrusted BHEL with an order for setting up an 800 MW supercritical coal-based project at Wanakbori in Gujarat on EPC basis. (www.business-standard.com)

April 17, 2015. State-run NHPC has received government's approval for diversion of land for the construction of Dibang project in Arunachal Pradesh. The project will come up on Dibang River in Lower Dibang valley district of Arunachal Pradesh and the company has already received techno-economic clearance for the project. The 3,000 MW hydel project, being developed by NHPC, at was originally scheduled to get commissioned by 2017 but delays in necessary clearances have pushed it back by about two years. The project was cleared by the Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), last year. At present, NHPC has an installed generation capacity of 6507 MW and another 3290 MW is under construction, according to the company. (economictimes.indiatimes.com)

April 16, 2015. Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) said it has fully commissioned the 2,400 MW O.P. Jindal thermal power project in Chhattisgarh. The previous three units were commissioned by BHEL in the last three months. The scope of work in the contract included design, engineering, manufacture, supply, erection, testing and commissioning of steam turbines, generators and boilers, besides controls and instrumentation and Electrostatic Precipitators (ESPs), BHEL said. The company said it has commissioned another 600-MW unit of Dainik Bhaskar Power Ltd's upcoming 2x600 MW thermal power project in Janjgir Champa district of Chhattisgarh. This is the second unit of the power project commissioned by BHEL. (www.daijiworld.com)

April 16, 2015. A 240 MW hydel power project of North Eastern Electric Power Corporation (NEEPCO) proposed to be set up along the Assam-Meghalaya border is facing strong opposition from locals who claim it would affect 1000 families. Both the state governments have issued no objection certificates to NEEPCO for the 100 m high dam on Umiam River near Lamalong. Local villagers said the dam will submerge 600 sq km and in the process over 20 inhabited villages will be hit directly affecting over 1000 families residing there. Besides human displacement, the dam will also submerge agricultural land, heritage sites and flora and fauna, they said. (www.thehindu.com)

April 15, 2015. India's electricity generation touched the 1 trillion units mark during 2014-15 for the first time, showing a growth of 8.4 percent over the previous year. Since 1991-92, the compounded annual growth rate of electricity generation has been around 5 to 6.6 percent, a government report said. The biggest contributor was the coal-based power stations which recorded an annual growth rate of 12.1 percent. Out of 22,566 MW added during the year 2014-15, the contribution of thermal power sector was significant i.e. 20,830 MW (92 percent of the total). The report said government's focus has increased on power transmission and distribution. The government data analysis said due to huge capacity addition along with higher generation and improved transmission capacity resulted in reducing electricity energy shortage from a level to 3.6 percent from 7 to 11 percent during the last two decades. Among the new plants added are NTPC's 660 MW unit at Barh in Bihar, which is the first indigenously manufactured super critical unit. NHPC and SJVNL completed their projects at Parbati III and Rampur respectively. The gas based Monarchak Power Plant of 65.4 MW, Agartala ST-II of 25.5 MW and Palatana Unit-II of 363.3 MW were also commissioned during the year in Tripura which will benefit the entire North East. (www.business-standard.com)

April 21, 2015. The Telangana government has decided to forgo its stated share of electricity in APGenco-owned 1,600 MW Krishnapatnam power project and had informed the same to the Southern Region Load Despatch Centre recently. While the move looks strange considering the power-deficit status of Telangana, people in the know said the government had taken a critical view of the entire power sharing arrangement after doing a cost-benefit analysis. The issue of power became a major bone of contention between the two states soon after bifurcation when the Andhra Pradesh (AP) government turned down Telangana’s claim over Krishnapatnam project as well as the 1,050 MW Hinduja project in Visakhapatnam. While Telangana argued that these two plants were also part of the arrangement of sharing on a 54:46 basis as prescribed by the central government under the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014, AP said there were no valid power purchase agreements (PPAs) to back these claims. The first hint of a change in government’s thinking came earlier this year when Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao declared in the Assembly that they would not take power from AP in protest of their refusal to share from Krishnapatnam. There is an average 50-60 paise per unit difference in the cost of power generation between the plants of AP and Telangana and the latter would end up paying more if it depends on AP for a long time, TelanganaGenco said giving out reasons behind the government’s move. Under the sharing arrangement, Telangana has to give 46 per cent power from its plants to AP while the latter has to give 54 per cent from its plants to Telangana at a price fixed at their end. This will increasingly work in favour of AP as it gets cheaper power from Telangana, which is adding substantial capacity in the next couple of years. However, he added Telangana power utilities could pool the power and even sell it to other states instead of forgoing their share in AP plants. According to an estimate, the supply-demand gap would increase to 2,000 MW from the present 1,000 MW in Telangana if the two states decide to end the sharing arrangement. In addition to buying power at a high cost from AP plants during their long PPA period, the existing arrangement will also act as a disincentive to go for more capacity addition in Telangana, Raghu argued. When contacted on the Krishnapatnam issue, TS Genco said AP discoms had already excluded these plants from the power sharing list in their filings to the AP Electricity Regulatory Commission. The Centre had appointed a Central Electricity Authority-headed committee to resolve the power sharing issues of both the states. (www.business-standard.com)

April 21, 2015. Power Grid Corp said its board has approved investments worth ` 5,547.90 crore in various projects including inter-state electricity transmission. Power Grid's board of directors has accorded investment approvals for "implementation of green energy corridors: Inter-State Transmission Scheme-Part A at an estimated cost of ` 1,479.30 crore, with commissioning schedule of 24 months (and) implementation of Green Energy Corridors: Inter-State Transmission Scheme-Part B at an estimated cost of ` 3,705.61 crore, the company said. (profit.ndtv.com)

April 20, 2015. The Ministries of Railways and Coal and the Odisha government signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for formation of a joint venture (JV) to undertake project development, financing and implementation of projects for evacuation of coal through rail. Minister of Railways Suresh Prabhu said the coal sector was the largest customer of the Indian Railways. He said MoUs for similar joint ventures would be signed with other statement governments also. The JV will have 64% shareholding from the Ministry of Coal or its PSU, 26% from the Ministry of Railways its PSU and 10% from Government of Odisha or its PSU. (netindian.in)

April 20, 2015. Lanco Infratech announced the successful closure of the sell-off of its Udupi power plant to Adani Power, making it the largest acquisition till date in India's thermal power sector. The transaction was announced in August 2014, as part of Lanco's debt restructuring strategy. Lanco has set up 2 X 600 MW fully imported coal-based power project in the Udupi district of Karnataka. Following the completion of the transaction, Lanco Infratech has realised the enterprise value of around ` 6,300 crore by reducing long-term debt and realising its equity value. Lanco said the transaction will support the company in reducing its debt and infuse capital in other projects including Lanco Amarkantak Power. (www.newkerala.com)

April 15, 2015. The Rockefeller Foundation committed USD 75 million (` 468 crore) for financing an initiative to provide electricity to 1,000 villages through mini-transmission grids. The Smart Power model is an innovative way to deliver clean energy via decentralised mini grids. A mini grid can carry 65-75 kilowatt hours (units) and cater to 150-250 households with some 1,000 people. New Delhi-based Smart Power India will be The Rockefeller Foundation's key partner in working with energy service companies (ESCOs) for supplying power to the hinterland. Smart Power India will provide project development support to assist ESCOs in structuring their engagement in terms of financing, business model, site and cluster selection, procurement, training, and so on. (www.business-standard.com)

April 21, 2015. Power Finance Corporation (PFC) plans to raise up to ` 60,000 crore through short- and long-term borrowings in the current financial year to primarily meet the funding requirements of power sector units and projects. It disbursed approximately ` 44,300 crore in loans during 2014-15 and sanctioned loans worth ` 60,000 crore. PFC’s loan assets at end of March 2015 stood at ` 2.18 lakh crore — 15 percent growth over the previous year. CARE Ratings has assigned ‘AAA’ rating to the borrowing plan for the current financial year.

The ratings factor in the majority ownership by the government of India and strategic importance of the development of power infrastructure in India. CARE Ratings said during the nine months ended December 2014, PFC reported a net profit of ` 4,399 crore on a total income of ` 18,671 crore. Its gross non-performing loans stood at 0.96 percent. Capital adequacy was 21.05 percent at the end of 2014. Another rating agency, CRISIL, said PFC caters only to the power sector, with 68 percent of its advances to state power utilities (SPUs) as on December 31, 2014. SPUs constitute an inherently weak asset class owing to their poor financial risk profiles. The aggregate losses (excluding subsidy) of SPUs were around ` 93,000 crore in 2011-12. Steps such as tariff hikes by many states over the past two years and restructuring of debt of some SPUs were likely to strengthen the power distribution sector over the long run, CRISIL said. However, effective execution is extremely critical for the debt restructuring to produce the desired positive impact. (www.business-standard.com)

April 21, 2015. Tata Power Delhi's 108 MW power plant in Rithala has been lying defunct for over three years, since the project was first commissioned, due to lack of gas. However, the plant is finally going to start generation this summer thanks to a new proposal by the Union power ministry for subsidized allocation to stranded gas-based power plants. Established at a cost of ` 250 crore, the Rithala project was Delhi's first power plant commissioned by a private discom and meant to help bridge the demand-supply gap in peak summers and winters. The foundation stone for the plant was laid by chief minister Sheila Dikshit in March 2008, and it was inaugurated in early 2011.        However, a gas crisis led to only partial generation and from March 1, 2013, the plant stopped production completely. The Rithala power plant was the only project in Delhi that qualified for the ministry's scheme, which was for projects operating at less than 30% plant load factor. The scheme is for the current and next fiscal with a total disbursement of up to ` 4,000 crore. (timesofindia.indiatimes.com)

April 21, 2015. In a bid to cut down cost and reduce carbon footprint, Maharashtra government has decided to exploit non-conventional resources to generate 14,400 MW electricity by 2019 and will soon come out with a policy on it. The policy has been finalised from the administrative perspective and soon a presentation will be made before the chief minister, following which it will be sent for cabinet approval. (www.business-standard.com)

April 20, 2015. Odisha Coal and Power Limited (OCPL) will furnish bank guarantee and make part payment of the upfront amount before April 30 to the Ministry of Coal for allotment of Manoharpur and dipside Manoharpur coal blocks. The newly-floated OCPL, a joint venture company of Odisha Power Generation Corporation (OPGC) and Odisha Hydro Power Corporation (OHPC), has been awarded two coal blocks under the public sector undertaking (PSU) dispensation route. Though OPGC was allocated the same coal blocks under the Government dispensation route by the previous UPA Government, the two blocks were among 204 coal blocks deallocated by the Supreme Court in August last year. Meanwhile, OCPL has signed allotment agreement with the Coal Ministry for the two coal blocks for OPGC’s 1320 MW expansion plan at Ib Valley thermal power station. As per the Coal Mine Development and Production Agreement, the successful allocatee needs to provide a performance bank guarantee equal to the aggregate of one year’s royalty and the annual peak rated capacity of the mine multiplied by winning bid amount. The coal block owner will conduct mining operations at the coal mine in accordance with the milestones or efficiency parameters. Failure to comply with the efficiency parameters would result in appropriation of the performance security. OCPL has to submit a ‘Commencement Plan’ about starting mining operations. The plan will form the basis for the user agency to follow the timeline to achieve peak rated capacity of mine. If everything goes as per plan, OCPL will start coal production by May or June of 2017. (www.newindianexpress.com)

April 20, 2015. The Centre had rejected bids for three coal blocks in the recently concluded auctions to find “conclusive evidence” of possible “outliers” in the bidding process. The Coal Ministry had rejected the bids for three blocks, two won by Jindal Power Ltd and one by Balco. While the Government was firming up its stance on a further probe, the winners of the blocks had taken legal recourse. The Government still has the right to carry out an investigation, but as the matter is sub judice, the findings of such an investigation cannot be made public before the court proceedings are over. (www.thehindubusinessline.com)

April 20, 2015. The Delhi government appears to be in no mood to grant the BSES discoms a comfort letter that would enable them to get an ` 11,000 crore loan from Power Finance Corporation (PFC). Power minister Satyendar Jain said, they were "not comfortable" with the BSES companies when questioned on the government extending cooperation to BSES to secure the loan. The two discoms, who supply power to about 70% of the Delhi's population, meanwhile said unless they get the loan, they would not be able to pay generators, and any payment failure could lead to outages in Delhi. The discoms said they had been pursuing the issue of a comfort letter since early January. The companies said that there was no legal binding on the government for providing the letter, in the event that the BSES discoms defaulted on loan repayment.

The two discoms, BSES Rajdhani and BSES Yamuna, have sought a loan of ` 11,006 crore from PFC to pay their dues and stabilize their financial situation. However, the loan is subject to getting a "comfort letter" from Delhi government so as to signify that BSES was a Joint Venture of the government performing public utility service. Reliance Infra, which owns the two BSES discoms, has committed to pledge its entire 51% of shareholding in the two companies to PFC for availing the loan. (timesofindia.indiatimes.com)

April 19, 2015. Ignoring ally Shiv Sena's opposition to the proposed Jaitapur nuclear power plant, Maharashtra Chief Minister (CM) Devendra Fadnavis asserted that there is no question of going back on the project as it will be a big national waste and also India needs to make a major leap in power generation. The project was among the 17 pacts signed between the two countries during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent visit to France.

The Jaitapur project in Maharashtra's Ratnagiri district, where French company Areva is to set up six nuclear reactors with total power generation capacity of about 10,000 MW, is stuck for long following protests and differences over the cost of electricity to be generated. According to Shiv Sena, the energy produced from the project will be beneficial for the whole country, but Maharashtra would be at the maximum risk. Sena MP Sanjay Raut had earlier said that the government should take into consideration the farmers' concerns on the Jaitapur nuclear power project. He had said that his party will support the people who decide to protest against the project. (www.newindianexpress.com)

April 18, 2015. The Madhya Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (MPERC) has allowed an average 10 percent hike in power tariff for all categories, including the domestic consumers. The increased rates would be effective from April 25. Though the three power distribution companies had sought a hike of 22 percent, MPERC okayed an average 10 percent rise. There would be no hike for the domestic consumers whose consumption is 0-30 units per month (single point connection) or 0-50 units per month. Half the domestic consumers fall in this group. MP Power Management Company said after the hike comes into effect, the domestic consumers who use upto 300 units of electricity per month will have to pay ` 2,130 instead of the current ` 1,980. The power companies were seeking hike in tariff, saying that the coal price had shot up to ` 3,296 per ton from ` 1,663 per ton in 2009-10. In 2012-13, the tariff had been hiked by 7 percent. (www.newindianexpress.com)

April 17, 2015. Telangana and Andhra Pradesh (AP) governments have asked NTPC to allocate 85 percent power from two of its upcoming ultra mega power projects of 4,000 MW each proposed to be set up in the respective states. NTPC has already initiated the tender process for the 4,000 MW Pudimadaka project in Visakhapatnam district and also for the initial 1,600 MW plant at the existing Ramagundam power station in Telangana.

For the remaining 2,600 MW capacity in the state, the Telangana government is considering a couple of locations, including the land allocated in the past to a private power developer in Ramagundam, according to company. NTPC would finalise tenders for the two upcoming projects once it receives clearances from the Ministry of Environment and Forests. The company has a combined installed capacity of 6,458 MW in the two states. (www.business-standard.com)

April 17, 2015. Canadian company Cameco, which has signed an agreement for the supply of uranium to India, will start delivery in the second half of this year with the end-use being strictly monitored. The company is excited over the pact, which it says marks the "start of a new relationship" between the two countries. Cameco's president and CEO Tim S Gitzel said that the company will start delivery of uranium by the second half of this year as per a schedule. Cameco and the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) signed an agreement two days back during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Under the pact, the Canadian company will supply uranium over five years at a cost of 350 million Canadian dollars. Canada is only the third country which will be supplying uranium to India.

The other two countries are Russia and Kazakhstan. Canada banned exports of uranium and nuclear hardware to India in the 1970s after it was alleged that New Delhi used Canadian technology to develop a nuclear bomb. The two countries put this behind them with the Canada- India Nuclear Cooperation Agreement that took effect in 2013. When asked about apprehensions in Canada for long with regard to India over the nuclear issue, Gitzel said it was "history". (zeenews.india.com)

April 16, 2015. Jindal Power Ltd (JPL) will retain control of its coal washery and related plant facilities near two coal mines in Chhattisgarh, which Coal India Ltd (CIL) was trying to take over, Delhi High Court ordered. The court said the washery and the other plant facilities which CIL wanted to takeover were excluded from auction as per the tender document, and thus the PSU cannot have it.

The court issued notice to CIL and the Coal Ministry seeking their responses on Jindal Power Ltd's (JPL) plea by May 7 the next date of hearing. CIL contended that JPL had no right over the mining land on which the washery and other plant facilities were located as the lease is now with it. But the court refused to accept the argument saying the units had been excluded from the auction so they cannot be taken over. (www.business-standard.com)

 [INTERNATIONAL: OIL & GAS]

April 20, 2015. French utility GDF Suez said that gas had been discovered in a region of southeast Algeria where it holds a licence with partners. The discovery was made in the Illizi basin, where the company holds a 20 percent licence alongside operator Repsol with 52.5 percent and Enel with 27.5 percent. Sonatrach is to participate with a 51 percent stake in the development and productions phases. GDF Suez said that a successful test produced a gas flow of 175,000 cubic meters per day. The Illizi licence is GDF Suez's second in the country where its Touat project in the southwest is in the development phase and due to enter production in 2017. (af.reuters.com)

April 20, 2015. Kuwait Oil Co. (KOC) has discovered four new oil fields. KOC said that the discovery of these fields will "fortify Kuwait's standing as an international producer of oil." The discovery is the culmination of a two-year oil exploration mission. One of the reservoirs contains light crude oil, the first such reservoir in Kuwait. This will increase Kuwait's oil reserves and further strengthen its position among the world's top exporters of oil. There was no information on the size of the fields in the north and west of the OPEC nation. (www.rigzone.com)

April 17, 2015. Norway's Valemon field has been officially opened, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate reported. The field, discovered 30 years ago and which actually began production in January this year, was officially opened by Norway's Minister of Petroleum and Energy Tord Lien. Located just west of the Kvitebjørn field in the North Sea, Valemon currently has three producing wells but it will eventually have 10 production wells. Its reserves are estimated at about 192 million barrels of oil equivalent. Condensate from Valemon is transported by pipeline via Kvitebjørn to Mongstad in Hordaland County. The rich gas is transported to Heimdal and then on by pipeline to the UK and the Continent. According to operator Statoil, investments in Valemon will total about NOK 22.6 billion ($2.9 billion) when all wells are fully drilled. (www.rigzone.com)

April 17, 2015. Petroleo Brasileiro S.A. (Petrobras) reported the discovery of a new oil and gas accumulation in the Amazon Basin, Block AM-T-84 in Brazil. The discovery was made while drilling well 1-BRSA-1293-AM, informally known as Jusante do Aneba. Preliminary well tests have confirmed the presence of light oil (API 47 degree) and gas in arenaceous reservoirs, extending from 4,429 feet to 6,233 feet deep. Petrobras is the operator of the concession (60 percent), in partnership with Petrogal Brasil (40 percent). The consortium will proceed with activities to evaluate the oil and gas bearing reservoirs through a cased-hole drill-stem test. Separately, Petrobras also announced the discovery of an onshore oil accumulation in Espirito Santo Basin in Brazil. The discovery was made by drilling wild cat well 1-BRSA-1302-ES, informally known as Guayacan. This well comprises the Discovery Evaluation Plan of Tabebuia and is located some 74.5 miles from the city of Vitoria. Reservoirs are located at 2,333 feet deep and well drilling reached 4,304 feet. Petrobras is the operator and detains 100 percent of exploratory block ES-T-495. The discovery will be evaluated by formation tests, as part of the Evaluation Plan’s exploratory program. (www.rigzone.com)

April 16, 2015. ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL), the overseas arm of the state-run explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, does not plan to get out of the Imperial Energy fields in Russia anytime soon despite declining output, $400 million write-down and withdrawal of sanction-hit oilfield services firms delaying exploration. A sharply lower than expected output clouded the prospects at the Russian fields operated by Imperial Energy, a fully-owned subsidiary of OVL, setting off speculation that the Indian parent might just exit the asset. Questions have also been raised about the $1.9 billion buyout of Imperial Energy in 2008 when oil prices were more than double the current level. However, OVL is betting on striking gold in Imperial’s shale reserves in Bazhenov, Russia and getting a larger share in the potential profits after Russian government reduced taxes. Bazhenov is estimated to hold as much as 360 billion barrels of recoverable reserves but has proved hard to drill so far. (www.diligentia.net.in)

April 21, 2015. Puma Energy, whose largest shareholder is commodity trader Trafigura Beheer BV, opened an offshore fueling system in Angola’s capital to expand a terminal that could cost as much as $400 million. Puma’s Fishing Port Terminal in Luanda Bay will have total storage capacity of 276,000 cubic meters in its first phase, the Singapore-based company said. The terminal could be expanded to 393,000 cubic meters, Puma said. Puma’s investment in the Luanda terminal could triple or quadruple from the $100 million spent so far by the time it’s complete, the company said. The terminal’s conventional buoy-mooring system can accommodate all but the industry’s biggest tankers, Puma said. The company started operating in Angola, Africa’s second-biggest crude producer, in 2004 as a partner of state-owned Sonangol. Puma operates a network of gas stations, fuel bunkering, direct fuel sales, and a bitumen storage and distribution business in the country. (www.bloomberg.com)

April 20, 2015. Air Products, in a joint venture with Saudi Arabian company ACWA, has received a contract from Saudi Aramco to build, own and operate an industrial gas complex in Saudi Arabia. Under the 20-years contract, Air Products and ACWA will supply 75,000 metric tons of gas per day to Saudi Aramco's refinery, which is under construction in Jazan. Being built in the province of Jazan, the refinery is expected to have 400,000 barrel per day capacity to process heavy and medium crude oils and produce gasoline, ultra-low sulfur diesel, benzene and paraxylene. Air Products will use its proprietary technology to design and build the industrial gas complex, which will be owned 25%by Air Products and 75% by ACWA. The Jazan refinery is planned to be completed by late 2016. (www.energy-business-review.com)

April 18, 2015. Production at the 172,000 barrels per day Sapref refinery, South Africa's largest and co-owned by BP and Shell, is normal following a pipeline fire that was extinguished. The refinery is still online and production has not been impacted. The refinery, situated in the eastern port city of Durban, said an explosion had occurred outside the refinery. (www.reuters.com)

April 21, 2015. When Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras meets the head of Russia’s OAO Gazprom, they’ll probably sign an agreement to have a natural-gas link to Europe cross Greece, analysts from UBS Group AG and Alfa-Bank said. Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed a pipeline to Europe via Turkey last year after the EU blocked its planned South Stream link as relations soured to a Cold-War low over the conflict in Ukraine. Putin promised Tsipras his debt-burdened economy would get “hundreds of millions of euros every year” for gas transit to the EU if Greece signed on. Gazprom is planning to shift all gas flows that cross Ukraine to the new route from 2020, after signing a framework accord with Turkey’s Botas AS in December. Gazprom and Turkey are bogged down in price talks for the proposed pipeline, now known as Turkish Stream. While Gazprom is under pressure to cut prices for Turkey to help end its reliance on Ukrainian pipelines, it will have to sign accords with private buyers that control 20 percent of the country’s market.

The pipeline will probably reach Italy and Central Europe, Putin said. The link through Greece may cost about € 2 billion ($2.15 billion), its Energy Minister Panagiotis Lafazanis said after Tsipras met with Putin. The country also expects a discounted gas-price from Russia and “cash” that could be paid back through transit fees, according to the minister. Russia may give Greece as much as € 5 billion in advance payments for the proposed gas transit under an energy agreement to be signed. Greece relies on Russian gas for about 60 percent of its needs. Gazprom delivered 1.75 billion cubic meters of fuel to the country, or 1 percent of Russia’s total gas exports outside the former Soviet Union, according to data from the Moscow-based exporter. (www.bloomberg.com)

April 21, 2015. There are many reasons why China’s biggest oil companies should be dusting off their files on acquisition targets: cheap oil, the beginnings of global consolidation, and the nation’s rising crude consumption among them. If it's not at the top of the priority list, it’s because state-owned giants such as PetroChina Co. and Sinopec have their hands full. Weathering government corruption probes and its plans to remake the public sector are bigger considerations for the year ahead. Amid speculation that Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s purchase of BG Group Plc will spur a round of mega deals, China could find itself on the margins, swapping assets or buying smaller companies rather than bidding for the majors. That could prove a lost opportunity for the world’s most energy-hungry nation, as its reserves decline and import needs are forecast to rise to two-thirds of consumption by the end of the decade.

PetroChina’s president, Wang Dongjin, said that the company is looking at many businesses overseas, although its ambition could be limited to asset swaps to reduce transaction costs. That thinking hasn’t changed after the Shell-BG announcement. Buying large global rivals would be politically difficult and suck up too many resources, according to the company. Instead, China’s biggest oil and gas producer is seeking individual assets that can give immediate returns, the company said. (www.bloomberg.com)

April 21, 2015. Iraq's oil exports have slipped so far in April to 2.92 million barrels per day (bpd), according to loading data, although shipments from OPEC's second-largest producer remain close to a record high. If sustained, Iraq's exports this month will be just short of the record of 2.98 million bpd set in March. Another strong month from Iraq adds to signs of continued high output from major members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Exports from Iraq's southern terminals have averaged 2.50 million barrels per day (bpd) in the first 19 days of April, according to shipping data, down from 2.71 million bpd in March. But exports from Iraq's north via Ceyhan in Turkey, comprising Iraq's Kirkuk crude and Kurdish oil, have averaged 420,000 bpd so far in the month, according to loading data, up from March's 270,000 bpd.

The southern oilfields, being developed with the help of foreign oil companies, produce the bulk of Iraq's oil and the terminals are its main outlet to world markets. Located far from the parts of the country controlled by Islamic State, they have kept pumping despite the unrest. Northern exports were offline for most of 2014 and resumed in December following a deal between Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government. Flows have steadily increased and appear to have climbed even further in recent days. The observed export rate is less than the 3.1 million bpd that Iraqi Oil Minister Adel Abdel Mehdi said should be achieved, provided nothing unexpected happens. Iraq has targeted even higher exports in 2015 although that is not certain. Bad weather, technical problems and unrest can disrupt supplies. (www.reuters.com)

April 20, 2015. BP Plc and Royal Dutch Shell each have shipped cargoes of Canadian crude oil out of the Texas coast this month, according to industry firm ClipperData, highlighting a once-rare journey that is expected to become more common. The two Aframax tankers loaded from Enterprise Products Partners LP's export terminal in Freeport, Texas, according to the firm, which tracks crude tanker movements. They are currently en route to Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and Spain, data show. Canadian crude reaches the terminal via Enbridge Inc's 600,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) Illinois-to-Cushing, Oklahoma, Flanagan South pipeline, where it loads into the 850,000-bpd Seaway pipeline system, which Enbridge co-owns with operator Enterprise. Flanagan and the new 450,000-bpd Seaway Twin started up in December and have been ramping up. Enbridge has a license to re-export Canadian crude. ClipperData said that, BP's 600,000-barrel shipment of Canadian light sour blend, loaded on the Catalan Sea, left the Freeport terminal bound for Rotterdam. (www.reuters.com)

April 20, 2015. A fuel spill this month off the beaches of Vancouver proves more needs to be done before British Columbia will allow construction of new heavy oil pipelines, the west coast province’s premier Christy Clark said. An estimated 2,700 liters of bunker fuel leaked from the Marathassa, a grain ship in Vancouver’s English Bay, sparking political wrangling, with the mayor and province accusing the federal government of a slow response and cleanup. The emergency heightened concern that a bigger spill would have a devastating impact on the coastal province situated between landlocked Alberta oil sands and global markets. The Marathassa showed B.C. is not ready to contain a marine oil spill, Clark said. Clark laid out five conditions three years ago for major pipeline projects to be approved in her province, one of which is “world-class” marine spill response. Enbridge Inc.’s Northern Gateway project and Kinder Morgan Inc.’s Trans Mountain expansion both have routes that would run through British Columbia. (www.bloomberg.com)

April 20, 2015. OPEC member Venezuela is currently exporting between 2.4-2.5 million barrels per day (bpd) from national crude production of around 2.85 million, the state oil company PDVSA president Eulogio Del Pino said. Venezuela's output figures have often conflicted with international agencies, which estimate lower output due to methodological differences about how to count extra-heavy crude. Total investment in that region, recently renamed the Hugo Chavez Belt in honor of Venezuela's late president and where PDVSA has multiple joint ventures with foreign companies, should reach $15 billion this year, he said. Much of that would be in drilling, with PDVSA currently connecting new oil wells at a rate of two per day, and aspiring to raise that to three, he said. New pipelines and pumps, plus basic engineering for upgraders, refineries and terminals serving the Orinoco region, would also account for part of the investment, he said. PDVSA has formal ambitious targets to double national production to 6 million by 2019, with 4 million of that projected to come from the Orinoco Belt - but few industry experts or foreign investors expect those goals to be met. With Venezuela mired in a severe recession and around 96 percent of export revenue coming from oil, an increase in crude production is direly needed to help the government. Del Pino said he was not worried about where Venezuela would place anticipated future extra output in the market as Orinoco production grows. Venezuela has the world's largest crude reserves, nearly 300 billion barrels, and is South America's biggest producer. Early production in the Orinoco Belt has reached 50,000 barrels-per-day, PDVSA said, and overall output from that region was expected to end 2015 at 1.483 million bpd compared to 1.350 million bpd currently. PDVSA stressed the importance of Venezuela's Asian export markets, saying they were currently sending roughly 550,000 bpd to China and between 360,000-400,000 bpd to India. (uk.reuters.com)

April 17, 2015. Santos Ltd. expects its $18.5 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Australia to start production in about five months, pushing the country closer to becoming the world’s largest supplier of the fuel. The Gladstone LNG project should begin around the end of the third quarter, the Adelaide-based company said as it posted a 10 percent drop in first-quarter sales. That narrows the forecast start date of the plant from the company’s previous expectation of the second half. The gas exports to Asian markets will give a boost to Santos, which has been under pressure amid a slide in oil prices. Australia’s third-largest oil and gas producer has cut spending and jobs while flagging the possibility of asset sales as it copes with the oil market downturn. BG Group Plc’s rival LNG project in the state of Queensland has already begun shipments to Asia, while Origin Energy Ltd. and ConocoPhillips are building a third export development that’s set to start this year. The plants put Australia on course to surpass Qatar later this decade as the biggest LNG exporter. Santos’s sales in the quarter fell to A$825 million ($643 million), from A$913 million a year earlier, as the average oil price it received tumbled 44 percent. (www.bloomberg.com)

April 16, 2015. Indonesia's Bontang liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plant closed a tender to sell 1-2 cargoes per month from May until December. The tender, which was launched, will be awarded in late April. The plant is jointly operated by Pertamina, Vico Indonesia, France's Total and an Indonesian subsidiary of Japan's Sumitomo Corp and Sojitz Corp. (af.reuters.com)

April 21, 2015. Norway will ask European competition authorities whether it can provide state support to energy firm Statoil to bring oil and gas to the shore from its Johan Castberg field in the Arctic, the oil minister Tord Lien said. Statoil initially favoured piping the oil to an onshore loading terminal, but deemed it too expensive and said pumping it onto tankers at sea might be a more viable option. Though not a member of the European Union, Norway has extensive economic ties with the bloc as a member of the European Economic Area and accepts EU competition law. The onshore terminal would create jobs in an area with relatively low employment and also create capacity that could be utilised by future finds in the Barents Sea, an under-explored area where Norway hopes for more discoveries. Castberg, with up to 600 million barrels of oil equivalents, is one of Statoil's most expensive projects and has been delayed several times as the firm tries to reduce costs. Analysts estimate that even with offshore loading, costs could be close to $80 per barrel, well above the current $63 per barrel oil price. Lien said Castberg would be eventually built, even though Statoil has delayed the project three times since 2013. (uk.reuters.com)

April 21, 2015. Nigeria has to raise its gas prices to attract an estimated $55 billion of investment needed to plug persistent local shortages, Nigerian Gas Association President Bolaji Osunsanya said. A government increase of gas prices in August for power plants to $2.50 for 1,000 cubic feet from about $0.50 isn’t enough, Osunsanya, who is also managing director of Oando Gas & Power Ltd., said. These investments are needed to explore for more gas, set up five processing facilities at about $2 billion each and develop domestic distribution channels, he said.

International oil companies, which had been export-focused due to low domestic gas prices fixed by the government, have agreed to sell off $10 billion of assets over the past three years. Those assets are largely being taken over by local companies, such as Seplat Petroleum Development Co. and Midwestern Oil and Gas Co. Ltd. Oando’s $1.65 billion acquisition of ConocoPhillips’s Nigerian oil and gas assets in June made it the country’s biggest indigenous gas producer, with a production of more than 50,000 barrels of oil equivalent. (www.bloomberg.com)

April 20, 2015. Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi says Saudi Arabia is producing near record levels of crude in April, underscoring the kingdom's willingness to defend market share at a time when oil markets have staged a fragile recovery. There are worries that growing production from Saudi Arabia and other members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) could snuff out a recent rebound in oil prices, particularly with economic growth in key oil consumer China the slowest in six years in the first quarter. OPEC had said its overall output surged to 30.79 million barrels per day (bpd) in March, up 810,000 bpd from the previous month, with demand higher than expected due to lower prices.

Naimi said that oil production in Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest crude exporter, was "around 10 million" bpd in April. Naimi said that Saudi Arabia produced some 10.3 million bpd of crude in March, eclipsing a previous high of 10.2 million bpd in August 2013, according to records going back to the early 1980s. Oil prices have risen around 17 percent this month, pushed up by reports of a possible dip in U.S. output, but Morgan Stanley warned that Saudi production could be more important than developments in the United States. The minister said Saudi Arabia was supplying about 1 million bpd to China, the world's biggest net oil importer, and he expected Asia's demand to grow. (in.reuters.com)

April 20, 2015. North Sea oil licences acquired by a group of controversial Russian oligarchs are to be revoked by the British government unless the fields are immediately sold. The LetterOne Group, which was founded by former TNK-BP directors Mikhail Fridman and German Khan, purchased the 12 fields from RWE’s oil and gas unit DEA. But the Department of Energy & Climate Change raised concerns that the new ownership could endanger the UK’s own oil and gas supplies should tougher sanctions be imposed against the Kremlin in future. The government is worried about a potential repetition of what happened when sanctions were imposed on Iran, which led in 2010 to the temporary shutdown of the North sea’s Rhum field, co-owned by BP and the state-owned National Iranian Oil Company. (www.theguardian.com)

April 20, 2015. Russia’s economy showed signs of recovery in the first and second quarters amid a declining dependence on oil, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said. U.S.-traded Russian stocks posted their longest streak of weekly gains in two years as higher oil prices and a stronger ruble boosted the outlook for companies that depend on domestic demand. Oil exports represented about 13.1 percent of Russia’s economy in 2013, down from 14.6 percent in 2011, according to calculations based on the most recent figures from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Brent crude oil is 44 percent below last year’s peak in June, although it has climbed 38 percent since hitting a six-year low in January. Russia’s central bank sees the economy contracting as much as 4 percent this year after a 0.6 percent expansion last year. Standard & Poor’s stripped Russia of its investment grade credit rating in January as the oil-price decline and sanctions over the conflict in Ukraine push the economy into its first recession since 2009. Dvorkovich said Russia was in talks with Greece about a “partnership” rather than a rescue. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras traveled to Moscow and discussed issues including trade, investment, a gas contract and potential financial assistance, Dvorkovich said. (www.bloomberg.com)

April 20, 2015. BP has been lifting more crude oil cargoes in the past couple of months as payment for its work in southern Iraq, and is comfortable with that level of shipments, the oil company said. Low oil prices and the fight against Islamic State have forced Baghdad to delay billions of dollars of cash payments which it owes to international oil companies (IOCs), so they have been allowed to take oil shipments instead. Michael Townshend, BP's president in the Middle East, ‎said current total production from Iraq's giant Rumaila field was about 1.4 million barrels per day and was expected to remain steady in 2015. BP has extended an agreement with Iraq's Ministry of Oil to help arrest declining production at the huge northern Kirkuk oilfield, Townshend said. Kirkuk is currently disputed between the central government in Baghdad and Iraq's Kurdish region. Under the deal, BP works on the Baghdad-administered side of the border with the Kurdish region, on the Baba and Avana geological formations. BP, along with other IOCs, is in talks with Baghdad ‎over the technical service agreements under which they develop Iraq's southern fields. Investments in the fields are made by the foreign firms, which are then supposed to receive per-barrel fees. But low oil prices have made this arrangement difficult for the financially strapped Baghdad government. Iraq's finance minister said that Baghdad was planning to change the way it operated exploration and production contracts with companies such as Royal Dutch Shell, BP and Exxon‎. This may eventually move Iraq for the first time to production-sharing contracts, in which revenues are divided, from service contracts in which oil firms are paid a set fee. Townshend said IOCs had presented the Ministry of Oil with some proposed amendments to their contracts. (www.reuters.com)

April 20, 2015. Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (ADNOC) is still in talks with international companies about concessions at the emirate’s largest fields and hasn’t set a deadline for deciding on the awards, Director General Abdullah Nasser al Suwaidi said. Total SA is the only company to be awarded a stake in ADNOC’s new venture so far. The Paris-based company agreed to pay a $2.2 billion signing bonus for a 10 percent share in the onshore concession. Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates capital and its biggest sheikhdom, holds about 6 percent of world oil reserves. It plans to boost capacity for producing crude oil to 3.5 million barrels a day in 2017 from about 3 million barrels a day currently, even as prices have dropped more than 40 percent in the past year amid a global supply glut. Total, along with BP Plc, Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Exxon Mobil Corp. were all partners in a previous concession that operated the same onshore fields in Abu Dhabi for 75 years until it expired in January 2014. All four companies were among 11 that ADNOC invited in 2012 to bid for the new concession. (www.bloomberg.com)

April 20, 2015. Hedge funds increased bets on rising oil prices to an eight-month high amid signs U.S. production is slowing. Speculators boosted their net-long position in West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude by 9 percent in the seven days ended April 14 to the highest since August, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data show. Shorts, or bets on falling prices, tumbled to the lowest since February. WTI has rebounded by about 30 percent from a six-year low in March, boosting speculation that crude hit bottom. U.S. drillers are using the fewest rigs since 2010 after companies cut back on exploration amid the biggest plunge in prices since 2008. The government projects that shale oil output will decline in May and total production will start to drop in June. Shale production from fields including the Permian and Eagle Ford in Texas and Bakken in North Dakota will decline by 57,000 barrels a day next month, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said. That’s the first time the agency projected a drop in reports going back to 2013. The EIA forecast that output will dip from June through September, before recovering. The International Energy Agency projected that U.S. production of 12.6 million barrels a day in the first half of 2015 will slide to 12.5 million by the fourth quarter. The IEA figure includes crude, condensate and natural gas liquids. (www.bloomberg.com)

April 17, 2015. NOVA Gas Transmission (NGTL), a wholly owned subsidiary of TransCanada, has secured the Canadian National Energy Board (NEB) approval for the proposed $1.7 bn North Montney Mainline Project. The board has approved the applied-for rolled-in tolling design of the project, subject to conditions. The North Montney Mainline project includes construction of a proposed 305km-long gas pipeline in the Peace River Regional District of British Columbia, Canada, aimed to deliver natural gas to the existing NGTL facilities. The pipeline will be an expansion to NGTL's existing Groundbirch Mainline section (Saturn Section), which is located approximately 35km south-west of Fort Street John, and will connected to the North Montney area in northeastern British Columbia. The project is scheduled to receive Governor in Council (GIC) approval. The majority of the NEB members have also recommended the GIC to issue a Certificate to construct and operate the pipeline. (www.energy-business-review.com)

April 17, 2015. Quebec wants more evidence from TransCanada Corp. that its Energy East pipeline will benefit the province after a marine terminal was scrapped from the plan, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Pierre Arcand said. Energy East is the latest proposed pipeline from Canada’s oil sands delayed by environmental concerns including the risk of spills. TransCanada, which has waited more than six years for U.S. approval to build Keystone XL, is working to avoid the same fate for Energy East by trying to engage communities along the route ahead of environmental groups. TransCanada is delaying Energy East’s startup by more than a year to 2020 after abandoning plans earlier this month for a marine oil facility in the Quebec town of Cacouna because of risks to endangered beluga whales. That was the latest setback in the province, where utilities oppose the conversion of an existing TransCanada gas pipeline into a stretch of the oil-shipping project. While TransCanada weighs whether to build a terminal elsewhere, the decision to scrap the Cacouna facility makes it tougher for Quebec to evaluate the project, Arcand said. Quebec last year laid out seven conditions TransCanada must meet before the government supports Energy East, including environmental and social considerations. The project must also give the province an economic boost. TransCanada applied to Canada’s National Energy Board in October to build Energy East. Scrapping the Cacouna terminal probably means that hearings into the project won’t begin before the first half of 2016, making a decision by the regulator unlikely before 2017, Arcand said. Quebec is working with neighboring Ontario to draft a common position on the pipeline, Arcand said. Teaming up can only strengthen the provinces’ case before the regulator, the minister said. (www.bloomberg.com)

April 16, 2015. Ukraine will reduce natural gas purchases from the European Union (EU) as a drop in oil prices and the removal of export tariffs cut the price of Russian fuel, according to state-run company NAK Naftogaz Ukrainy. Imports through Slovakia may decline by about 30 percent from January levels and flows from Poland and Hungary could halt, Naftogaz said. Ukraine was using maximum capacity from Slovakia as Russian prices were higher. A 46 percent decline in oil prices since June is starting to filter into long-term European gas contracts, which are usually indexed to crude with a six- to nine-month lag. The extension last month of a winter package brokered last year by the European Union also means cheaper Russian gas, with the export tax removed, Naftogaz said. While Ukraine cut its reliance on Russian gas to 34 percent from 51 percent during the last year, the fuel remains a powerful weapon amid an insurgency by pro-Moscow rebels. Flows from European nations started last year after OAO Gazprom cut supplies to its former Soviet neighbor for about six months from June. Slovakia, Poland and Hungary are able to ship gas to Ukraine from the EU, with about 10 different companies selling the fuel to Naftogaz each month. Europe can provide about 10 billion cubic meters (350 billion cubic feet) of gas a year to Ukraine through firm capacity and another 10 billion using so-called interruptible supplies, Naftogaz said. While flows from Slovakia are reliable, they are less so from other nations. Imports from Hungary stopped this month due to price, Naftogaz said. The Ukrainian company is seeking to extend the current supply agreement, which ends in June, until a court in Stockholm has made a decision on an arbitration case between the two companies, according to Naftogaz. That decision is expected in 2016. Russia is prepared to offer Ukraine the discount until the court ruling, Energy Minister Alexander Novak said. (www.bloomberg.com)

 [INTERNATIONAL: POWER]

April 21, 2015. Energy and mining engineering group Amec Foster Wheeler has won a power generation contract for a new power plant in the Philippines. The FTSE 250 company has been tasked with designing and supplying two circulating fluidized-bed (CFB) steam generators for Aboitiz Power´s new power plant. The installation, located in the central province of Cebu, is expected to start operating in early 2018. The contract, the value of which was not disclosed, was awarded by Hyundai Engineering for Therma Visayas, a subsidiary of Aboitiz Power. Amec Foster Wheeler will deliver two 150MWe steam generators for the power plant's boiler island and provide onsite technical advisory services. (www.sharecast.com)

April 17, 2015. Shenhua, the largest coal producer in China, wants to drop its coal production by as much as 60 million tonnes a year, according to comments made by one of the company's senior executive at a coal conference in Beijing. Wang Xiaolin, the deputy general manager of the group, says the industry is facing unprecedented challenges. However, Wang maintains the country’s reliance on fossil fuel is unlikely to change in the short term. However, the company plans reposition itself as a clean energy provider in the future.

According to Shenhua’s annual report, its production of coal dropped 3.6 percent last year and its coal-related revenue declined 12.4 percent. Coal production in China declined 2.5 percent last year, while consumption dropped 2.9 percent, according to the country’s coal industry association. (www.dailytelegraph.com.au)

April 15, 2015. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced that his country would supply uranium to India for the next five years. Welcoming Harper's decision, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that Canada giving uranium to India is a sign of faith. Under an agreement signed after comprehensive talks Modi had with the Canadian Prime Minister, Cameco Corporation will supply 3,000 metric tonnes of uranium over five years to India at an estimated cost of $254 million. The supply will start from 2015, highly placed sources said. Canada is the third country to supply uranium to India after Russia and Kazakhstan. The supplies will be under the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards. (ibnlive.in.com)

April 21, 2015. China picked a dam project in northern Pakistan for its first investment by a $40 billion Silk Road infrastructure fund as President Xi Jinping looks to expand the country’s influence across three continents. The fund will become a shareholder of China Three Gorges South Asia Investment Ltd., which will construct the Karot dam on the Jhelum river, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry. The total investment will be $1.65 billion, according to the People’s Bank of China. The two nations, which have long had close security ties, are planning a total of $45 billion in projects along a 3,000-kilometer corridor stretching from Xinjiang in western China to Gwadar on the Arabian Sea. The investments would boost Pakistan’s economic growth and open alternative trading routes for China. The 720 MW run-of-river dam would take about six years to build, according to project disclosure documents filed by the World Bank’s International Finance Corp. (IFC), which is investing $125 million in China Three Gorges South Asia Investment Ltd. The project would generate 75 percent of its energy during the summer months when water flow in the Jhelum river is at its highest, the documents show. China Three Gorges Corp., the Beijing-based developer of the world’s largest dam, expects to become Pakistan’s biggest clean-energy company with plans for $5.5 billion of hydropower, solar and wind projects totaling more than 2,000 MW in capacity, according to the IFC. Pakistan requires as much as $20 billion in investments over the next five years to overcome a 10,000 MW shortfall in power capacity. Xi and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif signed pacts valued at $28 billion to build roads, ports and power plants, nearly equal to the amount of foreign aid the U.S. has provided to Pakistan over the past decade to support its war in Afghanistan. (www.bloomberg.com)

April 17, 2015. AGL Energy says it will not build, finance or acquire conventional coal-fired power stations in Australia as part of its plan to decarbonise the company's electricity generation by 2050. The group said it would not extend the operating life of any of its existing coal-fired power stations, which it plans to close over the same time frame. AGL had a key role to play in gradually reducing greenhouse gas emissions, while still providing secure and affordable electricity for consumers. The group's revised greenhouse gas policy says AGL will not build, finance or acquire conventional coal power stations without carbon capture and storage and that it will improve the emissions efficiency of its operations. AGL will also factor in a forecast for future carbon pricing to all generation capital expenditure decisions. (www.businessspectator.com.au)

April 15, 2015. China is expanding a pilot scheme that gives local authorities more control over electricity transmission and distribution prices, as the world's largest power market steps up deregulation to boost efficiency, according to a government document. The sector revamp would require the country's two dominant grid operators, the State Grid Corp of China and China Southern Power Grid, to eventually segregate their power transmission and distribution businesses, a transformation that may take years to complete, experts say. Following Shenzhen and Inner Mongolia, the provinces of Anhui, Hubei, Ningxia and Yunnan will join the pilot scheme to liberalize retail power tariffs, the National Development and Reform Commission said. Under the pilot plan, local authorities will set transmission and distribution costs based on "cost plus a reasonable margin". Meanwhile, China has said that it would also launch spot electricity trading platforms over which qualified generating companies and bulk end-users can settle tariffs themselves, starting with newly installed power stations. Such deregulation will target commercial and industrial power consumers, rather than residential users and public utilities over which Beijing will maintain a price-setting role. (www.reuters.com)

April 16, 2015. Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, who is in India on a four-day visit, has said both nations are expected to reach a framework agreement by the year end, following which, uranium supply to India would begin. Bishop reached New Delhi on April 12 to attend the 10^th India-Australia Foreign Ministers Framework Dialogue with her Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj. Australia has about 40 percent of the world's uranium. India faced sanctions after conducting nuclear tests in May 1998, but the restrictions have since eroded after a 2008 U.S. deal that recognized New Delhi's growing economic weight as well as its commitment to have safeguards in place to prevent diversion of civilian fuel for military purposes India is the first customer to buy Australian uranium without being a signatory to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. With two-thirds of India's power stations fired by coal, and latest data showing that half of them down to a week's stock, tapping into Australia's coal reserves is a more pressing need than accessing uranium. However, nuclear power is key to future energy plans in India, where a quarter of the 1.2 billion population has little or no access to electricity, a situation Prime Minister Narendra Modi says he will tackle. India operates 20 mostly small reactors at six sites with a capacity of 4,780 MW, or 2 percent of its total power capacity, according to the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited. The government hopes to increase its nuclear capacity to 63,000 MW by 2032 by adding nearly 30 reactors at an estimated cost of 85 billion dollars. It currently has nuclear energy agreements with 11 countries and imports uranium from France, Russia and Kazakhstan. (www.newkerala.com)

 [RENEWABLE ENERGY / CLIMATE CHANGE TRENDS]

April 21, 2015. Orange Renewable Power, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Singapore-based AT Holdings Pte Ltd, said it has tripled its wind capacity with the commissioning of 120 MW in Madhya Pradesh (MP) and Rajasthan. Delhi-based Orange is a renewable energy developer and operator of wind and solar projects. The company said it has commissioned 97.5 MW at its Mamatkheda site in Madhya Pradesh and 22.5 MW at Dalot and Devgarh in Rajasthan, bringing its total wind capacity to 179 MW. The company has an additional 400 MW under various stages of execution. The company said its Mamatkheda project is one of the largest single location wind power projects to be self-developed by an Indian independent power producer. (economictimes.indiatimes.com)

April 21, 2015. Delhi's Tihar prison complex got a 430 KW solar power plant which would reduce the prison's dependency on the power grid by about 5 lakh units and its bill by ` 45-50 lakh a year. Inaugurating the plant, Delhi Home Minister Satyendar Jain said solar energy is the future solution for our growing energy needs. Commending Tihar authorities for setting an example for other government institutions, Jain asked them to bring the power bill to zero by using LED Bulbs and other measures. DG (Prisons) Alok Kumar Verma maintained that the annual consumption of the prison complex would be drastically reduced using the solar plant, and outlined plans for increasing the solar capacity in the coming months. The installation is a grid connected solar plant whose whole object is to augment the grid using solar radiation, duly converted to electricity using solar panels, said Col Ajay Reddy, Director of Premier Solar, which had installed the plant in the complex. (economictimes.indiatimes.com)

April 20, 2015. To highlight the emerging business and trade opportunities in the solar and renewable energy segment in Uttar Pradesh (UP) and other states, a national Solar Summit is being organised in Lucknow. The three-day event, being hosted by Indian Industries Association (IIA), would be inaugurated by Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav on April 24, 2015. The summit would educate households who want to install solar power system; industries who want to use solar energy as an alternative for conventional power supply; industrialist who wants to set up solar power plants; and entrepreneurs looking for opportunities in solar energy to set up solar equipment manufacturing facilities. The UP government has zealously taken up the agenda of augmenting solar power generation and consumption, both on-grid and off-grid. The government has announced its solar energy policy, which promises incentives to entrepreneurs setting up solar power plants. Besides, the state is promoting rooftop solar plants to allow small companies and individuals harness solar radiation to generate power for personal energy consumption. This would not only provide a green and renewable energy source, but also lessen burden on grid. The 2^nd edition of North India Solar Summit (NISS) is being hosted by IIA in collaboration with the state nodal agency, UP New & Renewable Energy Development Agency (UPNEDA). The summit would witness the participation of equipment suppliers, distributors, advisory groups, support agencies and organisations associated with the energy sector. The 42 exhibitors, including Aliter from Spain and other national-level solar power companies/organisations, are coming to display their products & services, IIA said. The event would provide a platform for new opportunities, build relationships and establish partnerships in research, development, manufacturing and distribution in the field of solar energy across the country. A seminar on 'Rooftop Solar Policy' would be a special component of the summit for investors and entrepreneurs. All major energy related departments and agencies, including UP Electricity Regulatory Commission (UPERC), UP Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL), distribution companies (Discoms), UPNEDA and banks would explain the nuances of new policy and help prospective entrepreneurs firm up their solar energy based business plans. Sessions would be dedicated to B2B meetings, networking, building awareness and educating people about the benefits of solar energy. (www.business-standard.com)

April 19, 2015. The developed world would have to "walk the talk" on climate change and provide a green climate fund to the developing world, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar has said, ahead of a crucial UN meet on the issue in Paris later this year. He said India is pro-actively engaging with the world to arrive at a fair and equitable climate agreement in Paris. Javadekar, who is leading an Indian delegation to the US for a two-day meeting of Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate being hosted here on April 19-20, said India is taking action to mitigate the effects of climate change. Javadekar said India is a growing economy but climate change is a cumulative effect of hundreds of years of carbon emission by the developed world. (www.dnaindia.com)

April 18, 2015. With the appropriate policies, the Budget 2015 target of 60 GW of wind power by 2022 can easily be met with minimal government financial support, thus providing a cost-effective path for meeting India’s renewable energy targets, according to a new report from Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) and the Indian School of Business (ISB). In the report, CPI found that, in absence of any subsidies, wind power is already cheaper than the total cost of power from a new build imported coal plant, at ` 5.87/kWh for electricity from wind power and ` 6.81/kWh for electricity from imported coal. The comparison with imported coal is key because this is the fuel that additional renewable energy will likely replace, rather than domestic coal or natural gas, which are limited in supply. The analysis finds that wind power will continue to remain competitive beyond 2022. CPI found that, as the costs of installing solar power continue to decrease; solar power will become competitive with power from imported coal by 2019, and will require some government support from 2015 to 2019. In order to achieve the target of 20 GW of solar power by 2022, the total cost of government support would be ` 46.97 billion, or ` 2.71/W, under the current federal policy of accelerated depreciation. However, this government support could be significantly reduced - by 96% - by replacing the current federal policy with reduced cost, extended tenor debt. Under reduced cost, extended tenor debt, the cost of support would fall to ` 1.81 billion, or ` 0.1/W. To accelerate solar power sooner to meet the Budget 2015 goal of 100 GW of solar, revised upwards from 20 GW, it would need to provide more financial support. (www.business-standard.com)

April 17, 2015. India, in a surprising about-face, proposed to amend a protocol to accelerate the phase-out of some of the planet’s most potent greenhouse gases used in refrigerators, automobiles and air conditioners. The submission to revise the 1989 Montreal Protocol was filed ahead of negotiations in Bangkok starting April 22, according to documents posted by conference organizers on the United Nations Environment Programme website. In the past, India has been among the biggest opponents to halting the use of hydrofluorocarbons. The proposal is a “stunning evolution” in India’s position since Prime Minister Narendra Modi took office last year, said Durwood Zaelke, president of the Washington-based Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development. While hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, are as much as 11,700 times more potent in warming the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, efforts to address them have been stalled by log-jammed United Nations climate-treaty talks. India joins the U.S., Canada and others in pushing for a faster phase-out by bringing the gases under the Montreal deal, originally designed to protect the ozone layer rather than the climate. India had previously blocked proposed amendments to the protocol saying it was the wrong treaty to bring about changes. A quicker phase-out would give developing nations including India less time to find economic alternatives, vital for air conditioners in hot climates. Also, India is home to major HFC producers, including SRF Ltd., Gujarat Fluorochemicals Ltd., Navin Fluorine International Ltd. and Chemplast Sanmar Ltd., which in the past have earned at least $800 million worth of carbon credits for limiting emissions of the gases. Modi, who swept to power last May, has sought to shed India’s image as a climate obstructionist, telling his top advisers in January that the nation needs a more constructive image. Since then, he has boosted India’s clean-energy targets and won a promise for solar financing from U.S. President Barack Obama. In its proposal, India called for the “expertise and institutions of the Montreal Protocol” to be used to phase out production and consumption of HFCs. However, it said the gases should still be accounted for and reported as a part of any UN climate treaty. (www.bloomberg.com)

April 17, 2015. Oil India Ltd (OIL), the nation's second largest state-owned oil explorer, said it has commissioned a 54 MW wind energyproject in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. Saddled between the two states, the project is split between a 16 MW capacity plant at Patan in Gujarat and a 38 MW atChandgarh in Madhya Pradesh, the company said. The project cost ` 439 crore -- ` 126.5 crore for the Gujarat side and ` 312.45 crore for the Madhya Pradesh location. OIL said the Patan wing of the project was commissioned on March 26 while the Chandgarh site was commissioned on March 31. (economictimes.indiatimes.com)

April 17, 2015. Surya P. Sethi, former principal advisor (power and energy) and core climate negotiator, Government of India, said that no one should be under the impression that India has reserves of coal and natural resources. He was speaking after inaugurating an international conference on Global Challenges, Policy Framework and Sustainable Development for Mining of Minerals and Fossil Energy Resources, organised by National Institute of Technology, Karnataka, Surathkal. Sethi said the reserves are very limited and hence there should not be an impression that in future the energy costs would drastically reduce. The two-day conference would deliberate upon the need for comprehensive and coordinated approach to satisfy the energy demand and address environment concerns adequately. (www.thehindu.com)

April 16, 2015. The Chinnaswamy cricket stadium in the heart of this tech hub has introduced modern technology, with photovoltaic cells fixed on its circular rooftop to generate solar power for its use, Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) said. Set up under the Indo-German environmental partnership and installed by RonXSolEcotech Ltd. ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) T20 tournament, the solar panels will generate 440 kilovolts or six lakh units per annum. The combined solar panels will have the potential to generate 18-lakh units per year to meet about 40-50 percent of its peak requirement annually. The stadium consumes maximum energy for lighting the ground, stands, dressing rooms, pavilion and other facilities when hosting the Indian Premier League (IPL) matches in summer and day-night One-Day Internationals (ODIs) when scheduled. By using solar energy, the association will reduce its expenditure on power supplied by the utility provider at commercial rate. (www.newkerala.com)

April 16, 2015. India has 900 GW of commercially exploitable sources of renewable energy if 3 percent of the country’s wasteland is made available, according to the Ministry for New and Renewable Energy (MNRE). The renewable sources of energy include wind and solar power, biomass and waste-to-energy apart from small hydro power plants. The solar power potential of the country remains largely untapped with only 3 GW of installed power compared with 750 GW of potential. Wind power, on the other side, has been developed at a much faster pace with an installed capacity of 22.5 GW as on December 31, 2014 compared with a total potential of 100 GW. A State-wise list of renewable energy potential has been drawn up by the National Institute of Wind Energy, National Institute of Solar Energy, Indian Institute of Science for and the Alternate Hydro Energy Centre. The Ministry’s annual report for 2014-15 pegs the highest renewable energy potential in Rajasthan at 148 GW followed by Jammu and Kashmir with 118 GW. Both the States also have the highest amount of solar energy potential. While Rajasthan has embraced solar power and has the second highest installed capacity at 851 MW, J&K’s solar power potential remains completely untapped. However, despite the potential, only around 34 GW of renewable generation capacity is installed in the country, largely driven by wind power plants. Though the government has a target of having 175 GW of renewable energy generation by 2020, capacity addition in 2014-15 has been slow. (www.thehindubusinessline.com)

April 16, 2015. Households in the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) areas which are keen on solar energy can now apply to install solar panels on their rooftops and transfer the electricity produced to the power grid. The NDMC will “purchase” the electricity and adjust against the monthly bill.  So far only five households have applied. The NDMC will make available “net meters” to calculate the power “sold” to it within a month. The Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) earlier had reservations about the project. But it has recently given the NDMC the go-ahead to launch it. This is part of the council’s smart city project. The applications of the first batch of consumers – both commercial and domestic – are being verified by the council. Generation of power from solar panels can be zero depending on weather conditions, such as cloudy or rainy day and at night. But if there is surplus, the consumer can export the amount to the NDMC grid. (www.deccanherald.com)

April 15, 2015. Sterling and Wilson, part of Shapoorji Pallonji Group and one of India’s leading solar EPC companies with over 350 MW of solar projects spread across 13 states, has commissioned more than 140 MW of solar power generation plants in India during 2014 – 2015. These Solar Photovoltaic power projects have been developed for various private sector institutions across Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. According to Sterling and Wilson, the cumulative power output from the 140 MWs of solar power projects commissioned by them within 365 days would be able to light up 2,00,000 Indian homes or approximately 4 times the number of households in New Delhi. From an environmental perspective, Sterling and Wilson has helped in reducing the country’s carbon footprint by decreasing its dependency on coal for captive power generation by 70 tonnes per year, which is the approximate amount of coal required to generate around 140 MW of electricity. It has been ranked the top solar engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) company in India by the Hong Kong-based IHS Research. (www.thehindubusinessline.com)

April 15, 2015. Promoting bio-fuels in India will help reduce oil imports as well as resolve the country's complex agricultural problems, Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari said. The minister said that adding green fuels such as ethanol, bio-diesel and bio-gas could change the face of rural India that is faced with agricultural crisis. Bio-fuel such as ethanol from sugar can "really be a great ray of hope for poor people," he said. He cautioned the industry that there was no use trying to convince the petroleum ministry in this regard. (www.sify.com)

April 21, 2015. Total SA’s chief executive officer (CEO) Patrick Pouyanne is looking at U.S. solar power rather than fossil fuels as an investment for France’s largest oil and natural gas company. Pouyanne said because Total is less established in working on unconventional resource basins in the U.S. the company has less of a focus on oil and gas exploration there. He said acquiring established operators doesn’t make sense now. (www.bloomberg.com)

April 21, 2015. The Obama administration’s plan to cut carbon emissions may force many coal plants to run only when energy demand peaks, making them less cost-effective, the group that oversees the U.S. electric system said. The North American Electric Reliability Corp., a nonprofit that assures adequate voltage and power reserves, in an assessment asked the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to delay the 2020 deadline to start implementing the Clean Power Plan, saying pipelines, transmission lines and plants are needed to prevent the cuts from disrupting electric service. President Barack Obama’s plan to combat global warming is built around the EPA’s carbon proposal, which would require a 30 percent cut in emissions by 2030. The plan is designed to replace coal as the main source to generate electricity with increased use of natural gas, renewable power and efficiency measures. The emissions plan will have wide-ranging effects on utilities, forcing changes that will upend models used for a century for generation and distribution of electricity. The EPA has said 40 years of clean-air actions have never caused power outages, and other analysts have said cheap alternatives such as natural gas and renewable energy will mean the decline in coal won’t cause major disruptions. The EPA said the power-plant proposal is designed to protect domestic power supplies. To meet the outlines of the EPA’s proposed plan, the industry would need to build natural-gas power plants producing an additional 46 gigawatts by 2020, the group said. (www.bloomberg.com)

April 21, 2015. Severe weather is the leading cause of power disruptions, costing the U.S. economy from $18 billion to $33 billion a year, and climate change will only make it worse, a White House review on energy infrastructure concludes. The report, released by the Energy Department, recommends investments in the electric grid to protect it from the severe storms that may be occurring more frequently because of global warming, as well as from physical and cyber-attacks. Vice President Joe Biden and Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz unveiled the report at Peco Energy Co. in Philadelphia. Biden noted that more electricity is being generated from solar and wind, which are challenges to the grid. Renewable energy resources often are in rural areas where power is needed least, requiring lines to bring it to consumers. The review recommends spending about $15.2 billion over a decade to improve the grid, upgrade the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and make energy infrastructure more resilient to the effects of climate change. Some of that money is in the proposed 2016 federal budget. (www.bloomberg.com)

April 20, 2015. British Columbia, pledging to step up the fight against climate change while ruling out carbon caps, is considering tougher building standards, its premier Christy Clark said. In contrast to her peers in Ontario and Quebec, Premier Christy Clark defends her province’s carbon levy as a better approach because it avoids the complexity of a cap-and-trade system, and the revenue can be converted into tax breaks elsewhere to boost the economy. She said more nonetheless needs to be done to reduce emissions, which have remained steady since 2009 in B.C., Canada’s third-most-populous province. Canadian provincial leaders criticized Prime Minister Stephen Harper for inaction on emissions and are striving to come up with proposals ahead of a United Nations meeting in December in Paris to forge a new international climate agreement. The UN’s top climate envoy, Christiana Figueres, said that Canada was one of only four industrialized nations to not have submitted its targets. Harper has said Canada will announce emission-reduction goals before June. Ontario, Canada’s most populated province, vowed to join Quebec and California in an emissions market at a time when the European Union is trying to fix the world’s largest one. Slumping carbon credit prices have discouraged European emitters from investing in abatement technology. Alberta, home to the oil sands and Canada’s fastest-growing source of greenhouse gas, requires large industrial emitters to pay C$15 ($12.26) for every metric ton of emissions that exceeds certain limits. (www.bloomberg.com)

April 20, 2015. China’s solar installations in the first quarter were almost equal to France’s entire supply of power from the sun. China connected 5.04 GW of solar capacity to grids in the three months ended March 31, the National Energy Administration (NEA) said. The Asian nation has a total 33 GW of solar-power supply. China is seeking to approve and install as much as 17.8 GW of solar power this year, or nearly 2 1/2 times the capacity added by the U.S. in 2014. The push is part of the Asian nation’s plans to cap carbon emissions in the next decade and a half. Utility-scale photovoltaic power plants accounted for 4.38 GW of the new capacity in the first quarter, with distributed projects comprising the remainder, the NEA said. Distributed generation refers to electricity produced at or near where it’s used. In the case of solar, distributed projects typically include rooftops or ground-mounted panels near facilities such as sporting arenas or municipal buildings. The northwestern region of Xinjiang led the effort, with 1.1 GW of photovoltaic power plants installed in the first three months. Xinjiang was followed by Inner Mongolia, Zhejiang, Gansu and Jiangsu. The NEA called for a nationwide quality check for solar power projects as installations burgeoned. Local governments are required to report inspection results by the end of July. (www.bloomberg.com)

April 20, 2015. SunPower and Apple are planning to build two solar power projects in ABA Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefectures in China. To be completed in the fourth quarter, the Hongyuan Huanju Ecological Energy and Ruoergai Huanju Ecological Energy projects have a capacity of 20 MW each. The projects will be co-owned by Sichuan Shengtian New Energy Development, SunPower's project development joint venture, and Apple. The Hongyuan project already has 2 MW connected to the grid using SunPower's LCPV tracker. The tracker integrates single-axis tracking technology with rows of parabolic mirrors, reflecting light onto SunPower Maxeon cells. Featuring SunPower's light-on-land approach, which will allow pasture farming while power is generated, the projects will provide up to 80 million kilowatt-hours annually. SunPower has delivered 90 MW of six projects in California, Nevada and North Carolina, to Apple. (www.energy-business-review.com)

April 20, 2015. EDF Renewable Energy (EDF RE) and BlackRock Infrastructure have completed the construction of 200 MW Hereford wind power project in Texas, US. Covering approximately 15,000 acres in Deaf Smith County, southeast of the town of Hereford, the Hereford Wind project features 54 GE 1.85 MW, and 50 Vestas V100 2.0 MW wind turbines. The project is connected Competitive Renewable Energy Zone (CREZ) transmission infrastructure to delivery wind energy from west Texas to the rest of the state. Electricity generated at the facility is sufficient to power approximately 55,000 homes while reducing greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to removing 80,000 vehicles off the road. EDF will provide long-term operations and maintenance for the facility, balance of plant, project oversight, and 24/7 remote monitoring. Currently, EDF is developing two more wind projects, boosting its installed capacity in the state to over 1 GW. (www.energy-business-review.com)

April 20, 2015. Hanergy Thin Film Power Group Ltd., the Chinese solar company whose stock soared sixfold the past year, agreed to set up a venture with Imperial Pacific International Holdings Ltd. to build solar plants in the Pacific. The companies signed a memorandum of understanding for the joint venture special-purpose company to construct thin-film solar plants first on Saipan, a U.S. territory in the Northern Marianas, then other Pacific islands, Hanergy said. Besides Saipan, where Imperial Pacific is investing $7.1 billion to build a casino resort, venues for the venture’s project development plans include the Marianas, Guam, Palau, Micronesia and the Marshall Islands. Imperial Pacific has secured land-use rights for the 100-megawatt project in Saipan with a 10 MW first phase. (www.bloomberg.com)

April 17, 2015. Over the last seven years the Mozambican village of Guguruni has housed hundreds of people whose homes elsewhere were destroyed by floods. This year it succumbed. The plight of its inhabitants, who again are seeking a place to settle, underscores the task confronting authorities scrambling to find dry land for people living in areas hit by seasonal rainfall that the government of the southern African country says is becoming increasingly severe. Mozambique’s National Institute for Disaster Management blames climate change for the worsening floods, which this year wiped out crops and left tens of thousands homeless. As long ago as 2010, the World Bank said that Africa was becoming the most exposed region in the world to the impacts of climate change. In Guguruni, floods destroyed the rice crop, forcing villagers to live off aid from by the United Nations World Food Programme, working through its local partner, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency. (www.bloomberg.com)

April 17, 2015. Smart energy solutions provider ET Solar Energy has signed an agreement with Filipino renewable energy developer Gate Solar Philippines to develop 70MWp of solar photovoltaic (PV) plant in the Philippines. The two companies will jointly develop, invest, finance, construct, and operate the project, which is scheduled to be commissioned in March 2016. The construction is planned to be started in the last quarter of this year. ET Solar will serve as the co-development partner and technology sponsor, as well as the investor in the project. (www.energy-business-review.com)

April 16, 2015. Germany must close about 14 GW of old coal plants to reach its climate-protection targets -- and some utilities may benefit from the shift, according to a new report. Germany would need to shutter 7 GW of hard coal and 6.7 GW of lignite generators starting in 2017 to reach its goal of cutting carbon emissions 40 percent by the end of this decade, Enervis Energy Advisors GmbH said in the report. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government wants the power sector to cut more emissions and is looking for ways to do that. It’s weighing forcing coal-fed plants older than 20 years, which have pushed cleaner natural gas units out of the market, to buy more European Union carbon permits. Analysts say that would force power producer RWE AG to close generators. (www.bloomberg.com)

April 16, 2015. Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. (APUC) has completed construction and commissioned the 20MW Bakersfield I solar generation and the 23 MW Morse wind generation projects in Canada and the US. Featuring approximately 85,000 solar panels located on 165 acres of land, the Bakersfield I is located in Kern County, California, and is the company's second solar generating facility. Power generated from the facility will be sold to a large investment grade electric utility under a 20 year power purchase agreement. The solar project will generate 53.3GWh of energy per year. APUC is also considering construction of the 10 MW Bakersfield II Solar generation project adjacent to Bakersfield I Solar, as part of its efforts to expand its solar generation portfolio. The Bakersfield I Solar project is due to enter service in the first half of 2016. (www.energy-business-review.com)

April 16, 2015. Brazil will increase the use of renewable energy, target zero net deforestation and push for low-carbon agriculture as part of its climate proposal, Environment Minister Izabella Teixeira said. In its proposal to the United Nations climate conference in Paris this year, Latin America’s largest nation will propose ambitious new targets to reduce destruction of the Amazon rainforest, boost reforestation and increase solar, hydro and wind energy. To do so, it will require more foreign capital and technology, Teixeira said. Mexico became the first developing country to present its proposal for the December United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, pledging to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 22 percent its target for emissions by 2030. The U.S. pledged to pare emissions 26 percent to 28 percent from 2005 levels by 2025. The Paris conference will bring together 190 nations to seek a deal to reduce global warming. The first proposals to the UN aren’t necessarily the best, Teixeira said. The country’s proposal would be based on consultations and would carefully weigh the costs of introducing new production methods. (www.bloomberg.com)

April 16, 2015. South Africa said it plans to more than double the amount of renewable power it gets from private companies by securing a further 6,300 MW as it named preferred bidders for contracts to build 13 clean-energy projects. Scatec Solar AS, Biotherm Energy, Sappi Ltd., Sun Edison LLC and Enel Green Power were among the companies provisionally selected to build solar, wind, biomass and hydroelectric plants that will add 1,121 MW of power to the national grid, the Department of Energy said. Financing for the projects should be completed in the fourth quarter, with plant commissioning due to start in November 2016. (www.bloomberg.com)

April 15, 2015. Energia Reino Verde has signed an engineering procurement and construction (EPC) supervision agreement with an undisclosed company for 12 MW Giant King Grass biomass power plant in Nicaragua. The plant, which will be co-located with the 2,060 acre Giant King Grass plantation project in Nicaragua, will be owned and operated by the special-purpose company Energia Reino Verde. The facility will be capable of producing 84 million kWh of electricity per year for 25 years. (www.energy-business-review.com)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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