In the 1950s, only one in 200 villages were electrified and just 3 per cent of the population in six large towns consumed over 56 per cent of utility electricity. 506 of 856 towns with more than 10,000 people were not electrified. The per person electricity consumption was 14 kWh (kilowatt hour) per year and in many States the per-person consumption was as low as 1 kWh. This was a period when the entire electricity sector was in the hands of the private sector. Private companies and their franchisees focussed on urban and industrial demand which gave them a reasonable return on investment. Rural and agricultural sectors were ignored as they were seen as unprofitable. Though the high cost of providing electricity access was a barrier, market failure was also among key reasons why electricity access was not delivered equitably.
In the early 2000s, 86 percent of villages in India were ‘electrified’, according to a generous definition of the term ‘village electrification’ that required only about 10 percent of the households to be connected to the grid for the village to be declared electrified. Less than 30 percent of the village households had electricity connections or electricity supply and there was no role for electricity in generating economic activity in the ‘electrified’ villages. The per person electricity consumption was just over 500 kWh. This was a period when the electricity sector was under state control. Though the state had taken over electricity generation and distribution because the private sector had failed to provide universal access to electricity, the state did not make a substantial difference in increasing access to electricity.
In 2014, when the current government came to power, 94 per cent of the villages were ‘electrified’ and the per person electricity consumption was just over 1000 kWh. All this signified substantial improvement in providing electricity access to households but the impressive numbers concealed widespread inadequacies. Supply of electricity to grid connected rural households averaged only about a few hours a day. The per person figures for electricity consumption are essentially statistical aberrations where all available electricity is distributed equally to over 1.3 billion people. The average hides huge inequalities between different States, between urban and rural areas and between affluent and poor households. If total electricity consumption by the domestic sector alone is distributed equally among the population per person availability of electricity falls to just over 220 kWh which is the line for energy poverty. In 2014, 90 percent of rural households consumed less than 100 kWh of electricity per month while 50 percent of the rural households consumed less than 50 kWh of electricity per month.
In most comparable countries, the pace of household electrification followed the pace of economic development (falling share of agriculture in the country’s GDP) and more importantly the pace of modernisation and urbanisation. The close co-relation between falling share of agriculture in GDP, the rate of urbanisation and the rate of electrification in post war USA, developing China and South Africa suggested that people were moving to electricity in cities rather than waiting for electricity to move to them in villages. Meaningful electrification in these countries was achieved as part of a larger effort to industrialise, modernise and urbanize and the aim was to increase consumption of electricity not merely provide access. Pursuing electricity access policies at low levels of economic and social development is an economic challenge unique to India. The share of agriculture in India’s GDP has been falling but the pace of economic development and urbanisation has been much slower than in other countries. This meant that electricity had to move to people in rural areas through state intervention against market logic. Though there were dedicated programmes to provide electricity to rural households since independence, the fastest pace of village electrification occurred when the policy to electrify villages was tied to the policy of increasing agricultural productivity by increasing access to pumped ground water in the 1960s and 70s. Electrification of pump sets provided the necessary ‘load development’ that sustained the programme. But rural household electrification, which in reality was a ‘co-benefit’ of the strategic pursuit of food security (through pump set energisation) was less revolutionary than the green revolution that made India self-sufficient in food production.
As electricity access and supply remained erratic and uncertain even until the 2000s, ‘electrifying’ households became a tool of populist politicians to gain electoral advantage. The upside of claims of having electrified households accrued almost immediately to the politician, but the downside of making financial provisions for the effort was deferred to the future and the financial burden of day-to-day operations was shouldered by distribution companies (discoms). Lacking adequate and timely financial resources, discoms underserved (through frequent outages for example) the development demand for electricity initiated by electricity access programmes. Uninterrupted high quality electricity supply to urban and commercial consumers was achieved at the cost of poor-quality supply to rural consumers. This is effectively a subsidy from the poor to the rich and it is not unique to electricity. Other public services such as health and education are also skewed against rural consumers as deep rooted structural, economic, political and social biases sustain poor public services to poor households.
All electricity access initiatives in India aim to provide a physical connection between the village (or house) and the grid, side-step the persistent challenge of low demand for electricity (economic scarcity arising from low affordability) from poor households. Low demand for electricity from rural households is the consequence rather than the cause of economic scarcity (or poverty). Low density of households and low consumption levels increase the cost of providing electricity access and are revenue negative for discoms. This is an important factor behind the evolutionary rather than revolutionary pace of improving energy access and also the cause of financial woes of discoms that are saddled with a huge debt overhang estimated at ₹2.6 trillion or about $36 billion in 2019-20.
In 2019, the Government claimed that 99 percent of the households were electrified but this claim was not substantiated with credible data. In 2020, Niti Aayog revised the claim, stating that 99 percent of “willing” households have been electrified. The most probable interpretation of the term “willing” is a market oriented one where it is taken to mean “willingness to pay” for access to electricity. If true, this may be signalling the return of the market to the distribution segment as suggested in the draft electricity amendment act 2020. The move to privatise distribution is likely to address the challenge of electricity access the way market always does – by excluding those who are “unwilling” to pay even though in reality they are “unable” to pay for electricity access. As the French economist Joel Ruet elegantly put it, “privatising power cuts” is a way out of the electricity access challenge that discoms have been grappling with for over five decades.
The government proposes to appoint independent operators of gas pipelines in the country to operationalise the common carrier principle that will allow all consumers and producers access to fuel transport infrastructure. The MoPNG was taking approvals for segregating the existing gas pipeline infrastructure to identify the portion of infrastructure that will need to support common carriers. As per the plan, a transport system operator (TSO) would be put in place to manage the common carrier part of the gas pipeline infrastructure. The TSO will be entrusted with the task of booking pipeline capacity for transport of gas from producers to the consumers on payment of fee to be decided by the regulator. The identification of a common part of gas pipeline may involve bifurcation of operations of gas utility GAIL (India) Ltd into gas transportation and marketing. The gas transportation arm may then be put under an independent TSO. The current work in the MoPNG also involves evaluating various ownership models that may be put in place to streamline gas transport operations in the country. Suggestions have also come to involve investors in transportation operations of GAIL, making it independent of the government and PSU oversight. The government was planning to set up such an independent operator to meet the longstanding demand from industry to separate content and carriage and therefore remove the advantage that state-run gas marketer GAIL enjoys due to its overwhelming control of the country’s gas pipelines. With the establishment of an independent operator, all gas marketers will have equal and transparent access to the common carrier part of the gas pipelines and will be able to book capacity depending on its availability. Most gas pipelines are mandated to permit a part of their capacity for common usage. The government also plans to monetise three oil and gas pipelines owned by GAIL, IOC, and HPCL.
The 444 km Kochi-Mangaluru natural gas pipeline will benefit industrial, commercial entities and households in Karnataka’s coastal districts of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi. Karnataka would equally benefit from the inter-state project with uninterrupted supply of eco-friendly and affordable fuel in the form of PNG and CNG. According to GAIL a parallel pipeline from Trissur and Palakkad in north Kerala to Bengaluru via Coimbatore and Krishnagiri in Taml Nadu would cater to all users in the state. The Centre has also announced a maiden gas pipeline project for the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
After oil, India may now build strategic reserve of natural gas to further strengthen the country’s energy security and shield itself from supply disruptions and frequent price fluctuations coming from perennial political risks in the prime energy supplying countries in the Middle East and Africa. A conductive global energy market where oil and gas prices are stable had given fresh push for building strategic gas reserves in the country. The country had already taken advantage of low oil prices in the first quarter of FY21 (April-June) to fill its existing strategic oil reserve, making big savings. And the government now feels that it’s time for similar infrastructure for gas. Spot LNG prices are currently at around $6/mmBtu, though a little higher than early last year, still attractively priced to push the initiative on strategic reserve. For building strategic gas reserve, the plan is to inject depleted gas fields with fuel or develop storage in large salt caverns. At present, almost half of the domestic consumption of natural gas is met from imports. With the government keen on building a cleaner gas-based economy, consumption is set to rise, pushing up imports of LNG. The suggestion for building strategic gas reserve has also come from Niti Aayog that is finalising a national Energy Policy. An earlier draft policy has made a case for a gas storage requirement, if consumers have to be assured of un-interrupted supplies. A panel in the petroleum and natural gas ministry has also studied various suggestions for building the gas reserve and will take a call on the matter soon after reports of experts on the issue come. It also plans to hire consultants to evaluate the options. It is expected that a natural gas reserve would rely more on the private sector to build gas storage capacity. In this regard, depleted oil and gas fields of national oil companies will be offered on competitive basis to interested gas marketeers, both for strategic and commercial storages.
The industry wants the government to bring natural gas under the GST regime to realise the vision for a gas-based economy and to raise the share of the environment-friendly fuel in India’s energy basket. Natural gas is currently outside the ambit of GST, and existing legacy taxes — central excise duty, state VAT, central sales tax — continue to be applicable on the fuel. FIPI which boasts of members from across the oil and gas spectrum observed that the VAT rate on natural gas is very high in different states – 14.5 percent in Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh, 15 percent in Gujarat, 14 percent in Madhya Pradesh. According to FIPI inclusion of natural gas under the GST ambit will have a positive impact on gas-based industries, promote usage of the fuel and avoid stranding of taxes. Greater use of natural gas will cut fuel costs as well as bring down carbon emissions, helping the nation meet its COP-21 commitments. FIPI also sought rationalization of GST rate on service of transportation of natural gas through the pipeline. Presently, GST on the service of ‘transportation of natural gas through the pipeline’ is applicable at the rate of 12 percent (with ITC benefit) and at the rate of 5 percent (without ITC benefit).
Maharashtra Natural Gas Ltd (MNGL) will launch mobile CNG refuelling pumps in Maharashtra. MNGL is a joint venture of Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd and Gas Authority of India Ltd. The research in underway for the mobile CNG refuelling units and the company will launch such refuelling pumps in the next 6 months in Maharashtra. The company is already supplying gas through pipeline to 302,000 houses and major industries in Pune and the Pimpri-Chinchwad region. It will also expand its operation in Nashik, Dhule, Sindhudurg, and other regions.
India’s efforts to build a gas-based economy is set to get a boost from the falling spot LNG prices that had skyrocketed to over $30/mmBtu (from $2 a few months ago on the back of the winter demand and supply constriants. According to an estimate by Emkay Global Financial Services, Asian spot LNG prices have started cooling off now with the latest deals happening at sub-$ 10 level for March delivery. This should consolidate at $ 5-6/mmBtu due to seasonality and resolution of supply issues, offering higher volumes for the Indian LNG players, the brokerage said in its report. Indian spot LNG demand (20 percent of consumption) is likely to be affected in January and February months but, thereafter supplies are expected to recover on the back of sub $ 10/mmBtu prices. This should also better avenues for entries such as GSPL, PLNG. Indian deals (for spot LNG) have happened at the rate of up to $ 14-15/mmBtu recently. Out of 95 mmscmd of Indian RLNG demand, 50-55 mmscmd is long term, 10-15 mmscmd is short term and remaining 30mmscmd is spot.
Royal Dutch Shell’s India unit announced the start of operation of its small-scale LNG supply with a truck-loading unit being inaugurated at its LNG import terminal at Hazira in Gujarat. The unit will boost the availability of natural gas in off-grid areas where there are no gas pipelines and also promote the use of LNG in long-haul trucking. The government is promoting the use of natural gas through various policy and regulatory reforms towards making India a gas-based economy by raising the share of gas in the nation’s primary energy mix to 15 percent from the current 6.2 percent. Gas is traditionally transported through pipelines from gas fields or LNG import terminals. Trucking LNG to users has lately emerged as an option to take the fuel to small and stranded users. The truck-loading unit will augment Shell’s natural gas supply offerings in India to include the supply of LNG via trucks. Shell Energy India owns and operates a 5 MTPA LNG import terminal at Hazira (Surat), Gujarat. The terminal has been in operation since 2005 and received more than 600 LNG cargoes to date.
Essar Oil and Gas Exploration and Production Ltd (EOGEPL), an investee company of Essar Capital, announced it has dispatched the first compressed CBM cascade truck for Bengal gas company’s maiden CNG station to be supplied by GAIL. Essar Capital’s investments in EOGEPL are focused on clean energy and CBM gas is seen as a key green fuel. The Kolkata city gas distribution network is being developed by Bengal Gas Company which is a joint venture between GAIL and Greater Calcutta Gas Supply Corp.
According to the IEA, global gas demand is expected to grow by 2.8 percent this year, or about 110 BCM recovering towards 2019. Global gas markets posted their largest drop on record last year, with consumption falling by an estimated 100 BCM as milder weather at the start of the year and the COVID-19 pandemic slammed energy demand. Still, gas demand proved more resilient than that for other energy sources such as oil. While global gas demand is expected to recover this year, no major rebound is expected and more mature markets will see only a gradual recovery, with some still not returning to their 2019 levels. New opportunities and challenges are expected against a backdrop of uncertain medium-term LNG demand, with about one third of active LNG contracts due to expire by 2025, while liquefaction capacity is set to grow by 20 percent, quadrupling the amount of current uncontracted volumes. According to Rystad Energy. global natural gas output fell 3.6 percent in 2020 but still outstripped production as the pandemic hit demand and prices. Output fell to 3,918 BCM with North American production hardest hit lower than a previous estimate. Global gas demand fell 2.5 percent to an estimated 3,840 BCM though lower prices for gas meant increased competitiveness versus coal in the power sector and helped limit the fall. Reflecting the impact of lockdowns to curb the spread of the coronavirus, demand in Europe fell by 7 percent, or 40 BCM while Asian demand remained relatively strong. Global imports of LNG bucked the downward trend and rose 3 percent to 363 MT, driven by demand from Asia, especially China. Global demand, driven by Asia, is expected to grow by 26 percent over the next 20 years to 4,867 BCM although Europe should see a decline from 2024. LNG production is expected to jump by 79 percent to 672 MT by 2040 yet still fall short of LNG global import demand of an estimated 736 MT. Rystad expects liquefaction capacity to nearly double to 886 MTPA.
France urged Germany to scrap a major gas pipeline project with Russia in protest over the detention in Moscow of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, but the plea fell on deaf ears in Berlin. Nord Stream 2 is a €10 bn ($11 bn) pipeline that will run beneath the Baltic Sea and is set to double Russian natural-gas shipments to Germany, Europe’s largest economy. The US and several European countries such as Poland have criticised the project, saying it will increase German and European Union dependence on Russia for critical gas supplies. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has stood by the project, and work resumed on it in December after an almost year-long pause due to American sanctions. German authorities gave immediate permission for work to resume on a subsea pipeline bringing natural gas from Russia. The decision by the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency can be appealed, meaning there could be another halt to the construction on the Nord Stream 2 project, which has drawn major criticism from the United States, some other European countries and environmental groups. The US government has argued that the Baltic Sea pipeline would make Europe more dependent on Russian gas and hurt European energy security. The Kremlin has responded by accusing Washington of trying to promote its own LNG sales. The Russian state-controlled natural gas company, Gazprom, has positioned a ship to resume work on the multibillion pipeline, which was suspended after a Swiss firm pulled its vessels out of the project amid threats of US sanctions. Because the Russian ship is of a different type than the Swiss vessels, Germany had to issue fresh authorization.
Greece ratified an agreement with Bulgaria for the operation of a €200 mn gas pipeline that seeks to help both countries and Europe diversify their energy resources. The Interconnector-Greece-Bulgaria (IGB), a 182 km pipeline is being constructed by a joint venture of Bulgaria’s state energy company BEH and Greece’s gas utility DEPA and Italy’s Edison. The pipeline, with an initial annual capacity of 3 BCM is key to Europe’s plans to cut its reliance on Russian gas, as it will be linked to the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), the final leg of a $40 bn project named the Southern Gas Corridor, that will carry Azerian gas to Europe. Greek parliament also ratified the charter for the East Mediterranean Gas forum, an intergovernmental organisation set up by Egypt, Israel, Cyprus, Italy, Jordan, Greece and the Palestinian authorities in September, that seeks to promote natural gas exports from the eastern Mediterranean.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is concerned about the Ukraine’s plan to regulate household gas prices, although the Fund has not officially commented on the plan. Such a plan would not help Ukraine start its currently stalled $5 bn loan programme with the IMF. The government would introduce state regulation and set a uniform gas price of $0.2/cubic metre during the country’s coronavirus lockdown or throughout winter, to avoid a jump in energy bills that have already led to protests across the country. The price of gas in Ukraine has long been a political issue, and opposition parties regularly use energy price hikes as a reason to protest against the government. Gas prices took off last month and in January, with gas companies supplying the public at prices often exceeding $0.36/cubic meter.
Azerbaijan plans to raise gas exports via the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP), mainly to Turkey, to 12.2 BCM this year from 5 BCM in 2020. By boosting gas supplies via the route, Baku is raising the stakes in its rivalry with Moscow for the lucrative European market following the start of Azerbaijan’s gas sales to the region in December via the TAP pipeline. 6.2 BCM of the Azeri gas will be shipped to Europe via TANAP. On top of that, 6 BCM will be sold to Turkey’s domestic market. TANAP comprises the longest stretch of the $40 bn Southern Gas Corridor, a series of pipelines that carries gas from Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz II field. The $6.5 bn TANAP crosses the breadth of Turkey, east to west, and could transport up to 16 BCM of Azeri gas a year. The pipeline connects to the TAP, which became operational in the end of 2020.
Woodside Petroleum inked a deal with the Western Australian government to supply gas from its Pluto field to the North West Shelf (NSW) LNG project through a pipeline. Woodside will feed gas from Pluto through the construction of an interconnector pipeline along the Dampier to Bunbury Natural Gas Pipeline corridor to the NWS project’s Karratha gas plant. Woodside will now supply an additional 45.6 petajoules of domestic gas from its existing share of the NWS project from 2025. The agreement follows a deal in December between Woodside’s Burrup Hub and the NWS Project partners to process about 3 MT of LNG and 24.7 petajoules of domestic gas at the Karratha gas plant. According to the government of Western Australia new interconnector would create 320 construction jobs. Woodside has agreed to make gas equivalent of 15 percent of its LNG exports available to the domestic market.
According to Royal Dutch Shell LNG cargoes have resumed from its Prelude floating LNG project off Australia, after being offline for nearly a year. Prelude had suspended full production since early last February following an electrical trip, with Shell facing a number of issues last year in trying to restart production. The cargo was loaded on LNG tanker Symphonic Breeze and is bound for Japan, shiptracking data from Refinitiv Eikon showed. The shipment comes as spot prices for LNG in Asia are at a record high following a surge in demand after a colder than expected winter depleted gas inventories. The $17 bn Prelude project, centred around the world’s biggest floating liquefaction vessel, had been plagued with problems, shipping its first cargo only in 2019, more than two years behind schedule. The project is jointly owned by Shell, Japan’s Inpex Corp, Korea Gas Corp and a unit of Taiwan’s CPC Corp.
Energean announced it will develop a new natural gas field off the coast of Israel at an initial cost of $150 mn. Energean had signed an 18-month, $700 mn loan facility with JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley to help fund the development and pay for the acquisition of a minority stake in Energean Israel from private equity firm Kerogen. The Karish North field, which was discovered less than two years ago, is expected to start production in the second half of 2023. The final investment decision had been expected by the end of 2020. The field will be connected via a 5.4 km pipeline to Energean’s 8 BCM-per-year floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) unit where the main Karish field is being developed and is expected to start production by year-end. The first well at Karish North is expected to produce up to 300 million standard cubic feet per day (3 BCM) annually.
Chinese oil majors will struggle to extend fast growth in shale gas production beyond 2025, as complex geology and failure to draw in more investors make it expensive to develop the unconventional resource. That would be a blow to China’s efforts to cut its reliance on gas imports, presently 42 percent of total consumption. It would also mean Beijing will have to step up development of other costly gas resources in its remote northwest to meet demand, as the country steers away from coal to achieve climate goals. The world’s top energy consumer started producing shale gas in southwest Sichuan in 2012, inspired by a US shale push, and has doubled output in the past two years to 20 BCM – or about a tenth of its 2020 natural gas output. State majors PetroChina and Sinopec have pledged to lift shale gas production by 75 percent to 35 BCM in the next five years, but output could peak at around 50-55 BCM by 2035 unless companies drill deeper that requires further technological breakthrough. China’s shale gas output could peak around 2035 at 50 BCM or 55 BCM. China has drilled under 2,000 shale gas wells, versus thousands in a single US project. Chinese shale gas production was equivalent to only 3 percent of US 2020 output.
China’s Sinopec Corp said it had completed building the first phase of a new shale gas field, Weirong, in southwestern Sichuan province with an annual production capacity of 1 BCM of natural gas. Weirong, located in Neijiang and Zigong cities, is the state energy giant’s second major shale gas development after Fuling, which is also located in the same Sichuan basin. With an average well depth of 3,750 meters beneath earth’s surface, Sinopec has tapped proven reserves of 124.7 BCM at the deep shale gas field. Under the first phase of development that started around late 2019, Sinopec said it had drilled 56 wells attached to eight drilling platforms. Currently, Weirong is pumping 3.5 MCM/day. China’s national energy producers are ramping up natural gas supplies in recent weeks of both domestic productions and imports to meet a demand surge amid a colder-than-usual winter and robust post-pandemic manufacturing activity.
MoPNG: Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, IOC: Indian Oil Corp, HPCL: Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd, km: kilometre, mn: million, bn: billion, PNG: piped natural gas, CNG: compressed natural gas, LNG: liquefied natural gas, FY: Financial Year, GST: Goods and Services Tax, mmBtu: million metric British thermal units, MTPA: million tonnes per annum, CBM: coal-bed methane, IEA: International Energy Agency, BCM: billion cubic meters, MT: million tonnes, MCM: million cubic meters, US: United States
9 February: India’s fuel consumption in January registered its first month-on-month decline in five months, as an uptick in global oil prices posed a roadblock to a gradual recovery in demand from the world’s third-largest oil consumer. Consumption of fuel, a proxy for oil demand, fell to 18.01 million tonnes (mt) in January, which was 3.2 percent below last month, and 3.9 percent lower than a year earlier, data from the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) of the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas showed. But India’s coronavirus vaccine programme could boost travel and bode well for oil consumption for the rest of 2021, Refinitiv analyst Ehsan Ul Haq said.
Source: Reuters
8 February: The Meghalaya government has decided to reduce the tax on petrol and diesel in the state by ₹2 per litre, Chief Minister (CM) Conrad K Sangma. The state government’s decision to reduce rates comes days after local taxi operators in the state capital here protested against the high taxes in petrol in the state. The price of petrol is little over ₹90 per litre in the state capital.
Source: The Economic Times
8 February: Over 10 million people in the country will get LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) connections for free under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY). This was revealed by Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi at Haldia while inaugurating a host of projects in the state. He said in Bengal, over 90 lakh people have got gas under PMUY and, of them, 36 lakh are from the SC/ST category. Modi dedicated to the nation the 347 kilometre (km) Dobhi-Durgapur natural gas pipeline. This pipeline is a part of the ambitious Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga project. The Dobhi-Durgapur pipeline has been built at a cost of ₹24.33 bn by GAIL. During the project stage, it generated 15 lakh man-days of employment. The project will revive Hindustan Urvarak & Rasayan Limited’s Sindri (Jharkhand) fertilizer plant, supply gas to Matix fertilizer plant in Durgapur and supply gas to industrial, commercial and automobile sectors and boost city gas distribution across all major towns in these states, including the cities of Purulia, Asansol and Durgapur in Bengal.
Source: The Economic Times
5 February: At a time when fuel prices are already at an all-time high, the state government has decided to levy higher taxes on the commodity. The BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) government has hiked the VAT (Value Added Tax) on petrol to 27 percent and on diesel to 23 percent. This will make petrol dearer by ₹1.3 and diesel by 60 paise. The price of petrol in North Goa currently hovers around ₹83.13 per litre while diesel costs around ₹80.13 per litre, depending on the distance from the oil marketing company’s tanks.
Source: The Economic Times
4 February: Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan warned that rising oil prices could hurt global economic recovery in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic that caused most economies to shrink last year. India imports about 85 percent of its oil needs and half of gas demand. The US is one of the top ten oil suppliers to India, he said. To meet its growing energy needs India is also investing $143 bn in domestic projects to boost local outputs and build oil and gas infrastructure including an 80 percent jump in refining capacity to 9 mn barrels per day, he said. He said the country is adopting cleaner energy sources to fuel its economic expansion but baseload will continue to be met by oil and gas.
Source: Reuters
4 February: Indian refiners would resume imports of Iranian oil if the United States (US) eases sanctions against Tehran, Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) said. India, which was Iran’s top oil client after China, had stopped oil imports from the OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) nation in mid-2019 under pressure from the stringent sanctions imposed by former US President Donald Trump. Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan last year said India, the world’s third biggest oil importer and consumer, wants to diversify its oil imports, including the resumption of supplies from Iran and Venezuela, under Biden’s rule.
Source: Reuters
3 February: The government has eliminated subsidy on poor man’s fuel kerosene through small fortnightly price increases and the fuel sold through the public distribution system (PDS) is now priced at market rates. The Union Budget for 2021-22 makes no provision for payment of subsidy on kerosene in the fiscal year beginning April, according to budget documents. In the current fiscal ending March 31, the kerosene subsidy was ₹26.77 bn, down from ₹40.58 bn in the previous financial year, the documents showed. The government in 2016 allowed state-owned fuel retailers to raise the price of kerosene by 25 paise a litre every fortnight to cut the subsidy burden. The subsidy was eliminated by February last year. In all prices were hiked by ₹23.8 per litre in under four years – From ₹15.02 a litre in Mumbai to ₹36.12 a litre. Subsequent to that, the PDS rates have revised monthly in tandem with the benchmark international oil prices. The price hikes have almost gone unnoticed and barely evoked any comments from the opposition, which has only voiced concern over rise in petrol and diesel prices. Kerosene is used by ration card holders for cooking and lighting purposes. But its consumption has dropped with 80 mn free LPG connections being provided to poor households. Kerosene consumption showed a de-growth of 28.4 percent in April-December 2020, according to the oil ministry’s Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC). States of Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana and Punjab have been declared kerosene free while Gujarat, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra have voluntarily surrendered a certain quantity of PDS kerosene allocation, according to PPAC.
Source: The Economic Times
8 February: Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has picked up two-thirds of its own new gas from KG-D6 block that was auctioned under new rules with GAIL (India) Ltd and Royal Dutch Shell getting smaller volumes. RIL and its partner UK’s BP Plc auctioned 7.5 mn standard cubic metres per day of incremental gas from the R-series gas field in the KG-D6 block, benchmarking it to a gas marker for the very first time in the country. The auction was held under the liberalised price discovery rules notified by the government that allowed affiliates of the gas producer to bid and buy natural gas. The bidding process for sale of gas was launched on 30 December 2020 and it witnessed participation from around 15 bidders from city gas distribution sector, steel, power, refineries, petrochemicals, resellers and other industries. The e-bidding process required bidders to submit their price bids linked to international LNG price benchmark JKM (Japan Korea Marker). The JKM represents price for spot LNG delivered in Asian market and is now being widely used in LNG industry as a marker for in medium/ long term LNG contracts instead of traditional linkage to oil. This was second time RIL-BP conducted an e-bidding process which ran on a dynamic forward auction basis for sale of KG-D6 gas. RIL-BP started production of gas on 18 December last year from the R Cluster ultra-deep-water gas field in block KG D6 off the east coast of India.
Source: The Economic Times
5 February: By 2022, Kolkata and its adjoining districts like Hooghly, Howrah, North 24-Parganas and South 24-Parganas are likely to get piped gas for domestic and commercial consumption. The first CNG station in the city would be operational in couple of days. The Urja Ganga pipeline would reach near Kolkata on way to its final destination in Haldia by 2022. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be dedicating a 347-km-long Dobhi-Durgapur natural gas pipeline which will be extended later. This pipeline is a part of the ambitious Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga project. Dobhi-Durgapur pipeline has been built at a cost of ₹24.33 bn by GAIL (India) Ltd. He said that the Dobhi-Durgapur pipeline project will revive HURL Sindri (Jharkhand) fertiliser plant, supply gas to Matix fertiliser plant at Durgapur and will supply gas to industrial, commercial, automobile sectors and city gas distribution across all major towns in these states. According to him, up to 50,000 cubic metre per day, the gas would be supplied by the company earmarked for city gas distribution while anything beyond that GAIL will supply directly.
Source: The Economic Times
9 February: Coal demand in the current fiscal may be lower than the initial estimate of 1,085 million tonnes (mt) due to the impact of Covid-19, Parliament was informed. Domestic supply of coal during the April-December period of the ongoing financial year stood at 489.89 MT, Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi said. The demand of coal is higher than the current level of domestic supply of the fossil fuel, he said. In FY20, the actual demand of coal in the country was 955.26 mt while the supply was 706.72 mt, he said. The gap between demand and domestic supply of coal cannot be bridged completely as there is insufficient availability and reserves of prime coking coal in the country, he said. Further, coal is imported by power plants designed on imported coal and high-grade coal required for blending purposes is also imported in the country as this cannot be fully substituted by the domestic sector which has limited reserves of high-grade coal. The focus of the government is on increasing domestic production of the dry fuel through allocation of more coal blocks, pursuing with state government for assistance in land acquisition and coordinated efforts with Railways for movement of coal, he said. In order to enhance domestic production, 25 percent of coal production has been allowed for sale in open market for newly allocated captive coal blocks.
Source: The Economic Times
8 February: There has been a 53 percent increase in electricity consumption in Maharashtra compared to the initial months of the Covid-19 lockdown, and power demand has touched 23,000 MW. This is chiefly due to Mission Begin Again from June onwards—with many industries, manufacturing units and private sector companies reopening in phases and the consumption demand increasing gradually, experts said. Many offices resumed with 30-50 percent staff while industrial power consumption too went up by at least 20 percent over the past few months. The latest relaxations, which allow more offices, shops, malls, multiplexes and restaurants to reopen, have led to more consumption. The demand for power across the state (including Mumbai) was an average 15,000 MW in March-end and in April and May last year. This gradually increased to 18,000 MW in June, and later averaged between 20,000 MW and 21,000 MW between July and December. In January, the demand peaked to 22,000 MW and has now touched 23,000 MW in February. Power expert Ashok Pendse said that as compared to the first two quarters of 2020 (April to June and July to September), there was not much of an expectation in the third quarter (October to December) during COVID pandemic. Mumbai’s power demand during summer season touches 3,400-3,600 MW and drops to 2,400 MW during winters. Since 1981, the city has been protected by a system called ‘islanding’ for which citizens pay around ₹4.5-5 bn each year through electricity bills.
Source: The Economic Times
7 February: Farmers did not have legal electricity connections at the protest sites and if police disconnected them, they were acting to enforce the law, said Union Power Minister R K Singh. Slamming the Congress party for questioning the government for cutting off the supply of electricity and water to the protest sites, Singh said. He said that if the police disconnected the electricity, they were acting to enforce the law. The electricity connection at the protest sites was disconnected after the violence during the farmers’ tractor rally on 26 January.
Source: The Economic Times
6 February: The Odisha Electricity Regulatory Commission (OERC) started public hearing via online mode on the pleas of power companies on electricity tariff revision for the year of 2021-22. Odisha Hydropower Corp (OHPC) and Odisha Power Generation Corp (OPGC) have presented their view before the commission on the first day of the hearing. OHPC presented its application for determination of the annual revenue requirement (ARR) and tariff of its generating stations for financial year 2021-22. The company has proposed to generate energy of 5619.2 mn units for the upcoming financial year and for this it has estimated its ARR at ₹5.35 bn. The OHPC has proposed to sell 5 MW to Chhattisgarh at an average tariff of 180.003 paise per unit during 2021-22. The company has proposed for an average generation tariff of 95.36 paise per unit for the coming financial year.
Source: The Economic Times
4 February: Delhi power minister Satyendar Jain inaugurated a 66/11 kV (kilovolt) smart power grid at Narela. The smart power grid has been built by the state government to provide reliable power supply to consumers in north Delhi. Jain said the power grid involves minimum input and gives maximum output, with zero human intervention. The smart power grid is constructed to cater to chemical industries and solve the problem of overloading in the area, Jain said. Jain emphasised that Delhi government was committed to providing a 24×7 electricity supply to the city and the smart power grid was a step ahead in that process.
Source: The Economic Times
4 February: India’s power consumption increased to a three-month high of nearly 6 percent at 111.43 bn units in January 2021, showing spurt in economic activities, according to official data. Power consumption in January 2020 was 105.15 bn units. Besides, peak power demand also recorded double-digit growth of nearly 11 percent to 189.64 GW in January 2021 compared to 170.97 GW in January 2020. On 30 January, peak power demand surged to its all-time high of 189.64 GW. After a gap of six months, power consumption recorded a 4.5 percent year-on-year growth in September and 11.6 percent in October. In November 2020, the power consumption growth slowed to 3.12 percent, mainly due to the early onset of winters. In December, power consumption grew by nearly 5 percent. Experts said the nearly 6 percent growth in power consumption and all-time high peak power demand of 188.45 GW in January give sufficient evidence that most of the economic activities are now at pre-pandemic levels. They expect power demand growth to be more robust and consistent in coming months. Power Minister R K Singh announced that peak power demand touched a record high of 188.45 GW and will surpass the 200 GW mark very soon. Power demand had touched a record high of 187.3 GW on January 20 this year. All-India peak power demand had touched a record high of 182.89 GW for the first time on 30 December last year. According to data from the power ministry, the peak power demand met (the highest supply in a day) during January last year stood at 170.97 GW. It grew by nearly 11 percent in January this year. The rising power demand shows revival in economic activities, leading to higher commercial and industrial demand, which was affected due to the pandemic. The government had imposed a nationwide lockdown on 25 March 2020, to contain the spread of COVID-19. Power demand started declining from April as economic activities were disrupted due to the pandemic. It affected power demand for five months in a row from April to August 2020. The demand recovered from September onwards. Peak power demand met grew at 1.7 percent in September, 3.4 percent in October, 3.5 percent in November and 7.3 percent in December.
Source: The Economic Times
3 February: The ‘smart prepaid meter’ scheme implemented in Bihar will now be extended nationwide. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman proposed to introduce the meter throughout the country in the Budget presented in Parliament. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar welcomed the announcement and said Bihar’s plan to install ‘smart prepaid meters’ will now be implemented across the country. The work of installing such meters in Bihar is going on at a rapid pace. The North and South Bihar Power Distribution Company signed an agreement with Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL), a public sector company, in 2018. After this, it was decided to install the meters in the state in 2019 in a cabinet meeting. Public sector EESL has tied up with Bihar’s two power distribution units to install 23.4 lakh smart meters in the state. EESL said this is the first time that such meters are being installed on such a large scale in the state. This would bring major changes in the power sector in Bihar. According to data, the per capita electricity consumption in the state was only 145 units in 2012-13, which has increased to 345 units in 2018-19. The number of consumers in the state has also increased.
Source: The Economic Times
9 February: The share of solar energy in India’s power generation could equal coal-fired output by 2040, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said, driven by falling renewable tariffs and a government push to increase green energy use. Coal currently dominates India’s electricity sector, accounting for over 70 percent of overall generation with only about 4 percent produced through solar. India was on track to exceed its commitments as a part of the 2015 Paris agreement, the IEA said. Electricity consumption is expected to outpace overall energy demand by 2040, mainly due to higher use of air conditioners, the IEA said. Still, India’s emissions of carbon dioxide could rise as much as 50 percent by 2040, the largest of any country, enough to offset entirely the projected fall in emissions in Europe over the same period. That would also make India the second largest emitter of carbon dioxide, trailing only China. The IEA warned that hundreds of thousands more could die every year due to higher exposure to air pollution, with the number of annual deaths potentially increasing by 200,000 from current levels to 1.4 mn a year in 2040.
Source: Reuters
9 February: Amp Energy India said it has commissioned a 7.8 MW solar power plant, one of the largest behind-the-meter solar projects in India, for Hyderabad’s metro rail project. It said that the project is a public private partnership between Mumbai-based infrastructure firm Larsen &Toubro (L&T) and Telangana’s state government. It said that the project would generate 11,300 megawatt hour (MWh) of green energy in a year, equivalent to reducing about 8,000 metric tonnes of carbon emissions annually. According to the firm, the Hyderabad metro rail project would meet 15 percent of its total power consumption through solar power supplied by Amp Energy. The solar plant was fully commissioned on 26 December 2020.
Source: The Economic Times
9 February: Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) said it will implement India’s maiden geothermal field development project in Ladakh that will use the heat generated by the Earth’s core to generate clean energy. Geothermal energy is clean and is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Geothermal power plants have average availabilities of 90 percent or higher, compared with about 75 percent for coal plants ONGC has planned this field development in Ladakh in three phases. Phase-I involves exploratory-cum-production drilling of wells up to 500 metres depth and setting up of a pilot plant of up to 1 MW power capacity. Phase-II would involve a deeper and lateral exploration of the geothermal reservoir by drilling of an optimal number of wells and setting up of a higher capacity demo plant and preparing a detailed project report. Phase-III would involve commercial development of the geothermal plant. India has seven geothermal provinces and a number of geothermal springs.
Source: The Economic Times
8 February: NTPC Ltd said that an avalanche near Tapovan in Uttarakhand has damaged its under-construction hydropower project. Earlier in the day, a glacier broke off in Joshimath in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district which caused a massive flood in the Dhauli Ganga river and endangered lives of people living along its banks. The Tapovan Vishnugad power plant is a 520MW run-of-river project which is being constructed on Dhauliganga River in Chamoli District of Uttarakhand.
Source: The Economic Times
6 February: Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has cut carbon emission intensity of its operations by over 12 percent in the last five years as part of making its operations more sustainable, chairman and managing director (CMD) Shashi Shanker said. He noted that economic growth of any nation requires various forms of energy, which should be accessible, affordable and clean.
Source: The Economic Times
6 February: The decks have been cleared for a waste-to-energy plant at the Jhiri dumping yard here, after the state cabinet gave its approval to rope in the GAIL (India) Ltd to set up the 300-metric-tonne-capacity unit. According to the urban development department, the Ranchi Municipal Corp (RMC) and GAIL will be signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for a period of 22 years under which the central PSU (Public Sector Undertaking) will set up two bio-degradable plants of 150-metric-tonne each at an eight-acre plot that will be handed over to them by the RMC. The project is likely to start by April this year and it will take around 18 months to complete. GAIL will produce compressed bio gas as well as utilise the garbage to manufacture manure.
Source: The Economic Times
6 February: Ambuja Cement, owned by Swiss group LafargeHolcim announced commencing sea trails for using biofuels in its fleet of captive ships, Ambuja Mukund, a move which is estimated to reduce carbon emission by around 25 percent. In December 2020, Ambuja Cement along with ACC Ltd said that they will make investments worth over ₹7.80 bn at their plants to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. The companies would be investing in green power generation that will help reduce the carbon footprint, the company said. These developments are part of the parent company LafargeHolcim signing the Net Zero Pledge with 2030 science-based targets during the Climate Week held in September 2020, as per the statement. In 1992, Ambuja kick-started transportation of bulk cement by coastal shipping as the best mode of sustainable transport amongst all other modes of transport as well as the most cost-effective way.
Source: The Economic Times
4 February: India’s largest power equipment manufacturer Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) announced it has commissioned the second unit of 800 MW capacity of the 2×800 MW Gadarwara super thermal power project Stage 1. The plant is located at Gadarwara in Narsinghpur district of Madhya Pradesh and is being developed by NTPC Ltd. The construction of the plant was undertaken by the company’s power sector division in the northern region based in Noida while the key equipment was manufactured at BHEL’s Trichy, Haridwar, Bhopal, Ranipet, Hyderabad, Jhansi, Thirumayam, and Bengaluru plants. The first unit of this project was commissioned by BHEL in 2019 and is presently under commercial operation.
Source: The Economic Times
4 February: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal launched the ‘Switch Delhi’ campaign to promote electric vehicles and appealed to people to buy such vehicles to combat pollution in the city. Kejriwal said his government will hire only electric vehicles for various purposes in the next six weeks. He asked delivery chains and big companies, resident welfare associations, market associations, malls and cinema halls to promote electric vehicles and set up charging stations at their premises. More than 6,000 electric vehicles have been purchased since the policy launch in August 2020. The government has also issued tenders for setting up 100 charging stations across the city, he said. The government has fixed an ambitious target of 25 percent electric vehicles among total vehicle registrations in Delhi by 2024, he said.
Source: The Economic Times
5 February: Equinor has made a new oil and gas discovery near Norway’s giant Troll field in the North Sea with partners DNO, Wellesley Petroleum and Petoro, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate said. Equinor said that the reservoir is expected to contain between 44 mn and 69 mn barrels of oil equivalent. Operator Equinor has a 40 percent stake in the licence while Petoro, DNO and Wellesley Petroleum each hold 20 percent stakes.
Source: The Economic Times
9 February: Royal Dutch Shell will narrow its exploration scope in Norway to focus on natural gas production and possibly offshore wind in future, it told the Norwegian oil and energy ministry. Shell said in October it planned to reduce its oil and gas operations to nine basins around the world as part of its strategy to reduce the carbon intensity of its operations. It is expected to announce details of its new strategy. The Anglo-Dutch major operates Norway’s second-largest gas field Ormen Lange, and is a partner in the Equinor-operated Troll field. It also provides technical service at the Nyhamna plant, which process natural gas from several fields for export to Britain and continental Europe.
Source: Reuters
4 February: Australia’s Woodside Petroleum said its three-well drilling plan for Myanmar this year remains on schedule after a military coup and it is continuing work on the country’s first ultra-deep-water gas development. Woodside is working with France’s Total SA and Myanmar-based MPRL E&P to develop the A-6 project in waters more than 2,000 metres deep off Myanmar’s southwest coast. Woodside is also drilling off Myanmar’s northwest coast. Thailand’s PTT Exploration and Production (PTTEP) , which operates the Zawtika gas field off Myanmar, is working on a $2 bn gas to power project that includes developing more gas, and a 600 MW gas-fired power plant. The new gas will be needed to offset declining output from the country’s older fields.
Source: Reuters
3 February: Russia’s Rosneft is considering liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects in the Arctic and other regions with total annual capacity of up to 95 million tonnes (mt). The projects were considered as part of its LNG strategy at a meeting chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak. The projects are a part of Russia’s plans to boost its production of LNG, a super-cooled sea-borne gas, to 140 mt a year by 2035, from 30.5 mt at present. Russia already has two large LNG producing plants. Yamal LNG is led by Novatek in the Arctic, while Gazprom’s Sakhalin Energy is in the far east of the country. Rosneft, headed by Igor Sechin, a long-standing ally of President Vladimir Putin, is studying plans to build a plant known as Kara LNG with capacity of up to 30 mt per year in the Arctic. Rosneft has plans to build a 15 mt LNG plant as part of its Sakhalin-1 project in the Russian Far East. However, a lack of natural gas resources for the plant has hobbled the implementation of the project.
Source: The Economic Times
5 February: Japanese trading houses are speeding up their efforts to shift away from coal and other fossil fuel assets amid a growing decarbonisation push worldwide and to match an ambitious pledge by government of becoming a carbon neutral by 2050. The move comes as the trading houses are re-thinking their long-term strategies around upstream investment, Wood Mackenzie Asia Pacific Vice Chair Gavin Thompson, said. For example, Itochu said it will offload its stake in a Colombian coal mine, shedding 80 percent of its thermal coal assets, and will sell the remaining stake in two Australian mines “as soon as possible.” Mitsui is also pulling out from a coal mine in Mozambique after impairment losses reduced the book value of the stake to zero. Japanese trading companies have already stopped investing in new coal-fired power plants, but Marubeni is expediting its plan to halve its stakes in coal-fired power stations by 2030. Mitsubishi has already exited from thermal coal mines, but coking coal and liquefied natural gas (LNG) remain key profit drivers.
Source: Reuters
5 February: US (United States) coal exports fell to a four-year low 62.66 million tonnes (mt) in 2020, down 25.6 percent from 84.23 mt exported in 2019 and the second-lowest figure in the last 11 years, only higher than the 54.68 mt shipped out in 2016, according to US (United States) Census Bureau data. In December, roughly 2.63 mt of thermal coal was shipped out of the US, down from the 18-month high 2.98 mt in November, but up from the 1.98 mt exported in the year-ago month. India received the largest volume of thermal coal at 989,102 mt in December, up from 923,271 mt in November and 211,342 mt in the year-ago month.
Source: S&P Global
4 February: Prodeco, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Glencore, will hand back its Colombian mining contracts after a review found restarting the unit’s operations would not be economical, the London-listed miner said. The unit had sought permission to keep its mines on care and maintenance, but the request was denied by Colombia’s National Mining Agency in December, Prodeco said. Glencore’s coal production in 2020 fell 24 percent to 106 million tonnes (mt), with Prodeco’s output plummeting 76 percent to 3.8 mt, it said. The ministry of mines and energy in Colombia – which is the world’s fifth-largest coal exporter – estimates national coal output dropped 30 percent in 2020 to around 54.1 mt. It hopes output will rise to 62 mt in 2021.
Source: Reuters
4 February: Japanese trading house Mitsubishi Corp expects the recent rally in coking coal prices to continue as long as China keeps an unusual suspension of customs clearance of coal cargoes from Australia, its chief financial officer (CFO) Kazuyuki Masu said. The company, which is involved in food production and distribution business and development of an industrial park in Myanmar, expects any immediate impact from the recent coup to be limited, Masu said.
Source: The Economic Times
4 February: Electricity consumption in Norway hit an all-time high of 25,146 megawatt hours (MWh) amid an ongoing cold spell, outpacing domestic production, grid operator data showed. Unlike the previous high, demand outstripped supply, which reached 24,920 MWh at that time. Most Norwegian homes are heated electrically, while overall power demand has also increased due to more electricity use in the transport sector and from industry in recent years. The recent cold weather has also driven up wholesale power prices in the short-term market to some of their highest levels in five years.
Source: Reuters
3 February: Lebanon is set to receive 500,000 tonnes of fuel oil from Iraq in 2021 for power generation, the Lebanese Caretaker Energy Minister Raymond Ghajar said. Lebanon’s state power company does not have the capacity to meet demand, leaving Lebanese homes and businesses facing power cuts for several hours each day and forcing many to turn to private power generators.
Source: Reuters
5 February: French oil major Total, which is making a major push to develop its renewable energy portfolio, said it had bought 2.2 GW of solar projects in Texas, adding to a rush of acquisitions elsewhere this year. Europe’s top energy companies have outlined plans to curb emissions and boost renewable energy output as they come under pressure from investors. It aims to add some 10 GW in renewable energy production capacity a year and to reach 35 GW by 2025.
Source: Reuters
4 February: Green Genius, a part of Modus Group, plans to have 242 MW of installed capacity of solar power in Poland by 2022, with the total investment expected at over €100 mn, the company said. Solar energy in coal-reliant Poland has surged to 3.7 GW in 2020 from 1.5 GW in 2019 due to hefty subsidies. The company has to date built solar power plants with a total capacity of 86 MW in Poland. It plans to build a new 32 MW project this year.
Source: The Economic Times
3 February: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) have signed a memorandum of cooperation to enhance their joint efforts to promote clean energy in southeast Asia. It will strengthen cooperation between the two organisations under the Cleaner Energy Future Initiative for ASEAN (CEFIA). The cooperation will focus on the areas of renewable energy, energy conservation and efficiency, and other technologies that will facilitate the transition to low-carbon energy. ADB has invested more than $25 bn in clean energy through sovereign and non-sovereign initiatives from 2008 to 2020. ADB’s clean energy investments in the ASEAN region amounted to $440 mn in 2020, accounting for 22 percent of its overall portfolio. Under its Strategy 2030, ADB aims to provide $80 bn in cumulative climate financing from its own resources by 2030 and for at least 75 percent of its country operations to feature climate adaptation and mitigation measures.
Source: The Economic Times
This is a weekly publication of the Observer Research Foundation (ORF). It covers current national and international information on energy categorised systematically to add value. The year 2020 is the seventeenth continuous year of publication of the newsletter. The newsletter is registered with the Registrar of News Paper for India under No. DELENG / 2004 / 13485.
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