DGCA seeks IAF nod for more flights to Jammu, Srinagar
With airlines keen on increasing services to Srinagar and Jammu, aviation regulator DGCA has sought Indian Air Force’s approval for increasing flight movements at the two airports. The airports are under the control of the IAF , which has allowed limited civilian aircraft movements. Sources said the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has sought IAF approval for increasing the number of flights at the two airports from the current eight to 12 per hour. “Airlines want to introduce more flights to the two airports. They (the IAF) have agreed to consider our request,” a senior DGCA official said. While awaiting approval, the aviation regulator has also written to the J&K government seeking increased security for airliners at the two airports. Seth Roberts Womens Jersey
Britain offers to develop Pune, Indore, Amravati as smart cities
Britain will be collaborating with the state governments and the municipal authorities to develop Pune (Maharashtra), Indore (MP) and Amravati (Andhra Pradesh) into smart cities, British High Commissioner to India Dominic Anthony Gerard Asquith said here today. The High Commissioner, who met Maharashtra Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao at Raj Bhavan here, said a centre of excellence on automobile skills will be set up in Pune. Maharashtra would welcome cooperation from Britain in areas such as cleaning of rivers and water bodies, sewage treatment and management of solid waste, a Raj Bhavan spokesperson said quoting Rao. Deputy High Commissioner of Britain in Mumbai Kumar Iyer was also present at the meeting. San Francisco 49ers Womens Jersey
‘If ONGC finds it viable, it can work with GSPC… Are they India and Pakistan?’
MoS, petroleum and natural gas, Dharmendra Pradhan talks about the challenge of delivering fuel to the grassroots level, stresses on the need to make LPG and kerosene subsidies more targeted, reflects on the BJP’s defeat in Bihar, and says Assam ‘voted for its aspirations’. Why Dharmendra Pradhan: Son of former BJP MP Debendra Pradhan, Dharmendra Pradhan was inducted into the Modi Cabinet after delivering a victory for the BJP in Bihar in the 2014 general elections. Though he couldn’t manage the same feat in the Assembly elections, Pradhan has been a consistent performer as MoS, petroleum and natural gas. Freeing up diesel prices from administrative control, reduction in LPG subsidies and the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, for providing subsidised LPG connection to the poor, are the highlights of his tenure. DHARMENDRA PRADHAN: Our ministry (petroleum), which has the primary responsibility of delivering clean domestic fuel, has done a good job in the last two years. It has penetrated to around 60% of the households. But delivering fuel to people at the grassroots level is still a challenge. To cater to that sector, we have introduced the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana. SHEELA BHATT: In your government’s tenure so far, international prices of crude oil and gas have been the lowest in history. But somehow the Indian consumer hasn’t reaped the benefits of that. There is one question in the minds of people across the country: why hasn’t the consumer been given 100% benefit. That’s a model, I don’t dispute that. Let me talk about my difficulties. For the first time, the government bore the expenses of the BPL (Below Poverty Line) people, for whom paying Rs 2,500-4,000 for clean fuel was difficult. Isn’t it the responsibility of a welfare state to uphold the quality of life of poor people and protect their economic interest? The second fact is that since the sharing formula of the 14th Finance Commission, whatever money comes to our (Centre’s) account in the form of tax, 42% of that is offered to the states. As part of the cooperative federalism model, shouldn’t our states be strengthened financially? I said that we should offer 50% relief to people. But there was a danger. As you must have noticed that the (crude oil) prices have started rising. The gap should not be widened to such an extent that when there is spike, it pinches the people. Our research has revealed that many countries, both developed and developing, have adopted this model, but no one has passed on 100% (of the benefits). SHEELA BHATT: So what per cent of the benefits have been passed on to the consumers? Fifty per cent of the benefits (of reduced crude oil prices in the international market) have been passed on to the consumers. The remaining 50% has been saved and shared with the states. It has been spent on welfare activities. SHEELA BHATT: In its report tabled before the Gujarat Assembly, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) questioned the investments made by the Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC). Firstly, we want to congratulate GSPC for its contribution in the exploration (of gas) globally. There is 24% gas in the world energy basket, and India’s share is 7%. (Of this 7%) Gujarat has a 25% share. This shows the competence of GSPC. So, I want to thank GSPC that it participated in bidding under the NELP (New Exploration and Licensing Policy). It participated in the third round of bidding too. (CAG questioned GSPC’s investment of R19,576 crore in the Krishna Godavari block project, among other observations.) According to the geological survey, of the five fields in high temperature-high pressure (HTHP) areas, GSPC has one field. These are very difficult fields. The nature of exploration (of oil and gas) is such that it has a 20-25% chance of success and till that time you will need to keep on spending. It is only when the production reaches the commercial phase that you start reaping the profits. So, what went wrong with GSPC, why couldn’t they convert their spending into profitability? The UPA government at one stage took the pricing mechanism, which should have been market-driven and assured by PSC (Production Sharing Contract), into its own hands. They should not have done that. Those who are questioning the viability of the project today… you did not give them (GSPC) the basic freedom and rights in PSC. After we came to power, in the new gas pricing formula that we have introduced, we have assured that we will bring in a different mechanism in deep and ultra-deep HTHP. The price mechanism that we have given now… there is a balance between cost of production and market price of GSPC. SUNIL JAIN: But even your government delayed freeing up gas prices for nearly two years? But today we have brought in good prices. There are so many stakeholders. We took one-and-a-half years, from October 2014 to March 2016, but we are bringing a futuristic model in the country and the world is appreciating the transparent model. There are bound to be some loose ends in policy-framing for such a big country. It can’t be knee-jerk. SUNIL JAIN: You managed to control diesel prices. The ‘Give It Up’ LPG subsidycampaign also benefited many. But now will you put a cap, since that could be a problem once the crude oil prices rise? You could say for instance that you won’t let LPG subsidy go above Rs 150 or Rs 200 per cylinder when the prices rise. Firstly, we won’t like to put any cap on LPG. We have set up a big model in a year; 10 million people have voluntarily given up LPG subsidy. Today, the LPG consumer base is of 16.70 crore people. Of this, 15.20 crore people are enjoying subsidy. So 1.5 crore people do not have subsidy. There should be a debate on the issue and a consensus should be formed. Some time back we collected data of LPG consumers from four to five
Kuwait to spend $115 bln on oil projects: official
OPEC member Kuwait has earmarked 34.5 billion dinars ($115 billion) to spend on oil projects over the next five years, despite the slump in oil prices, a senior executive said. “We have earmarked 34.5 billion dinars for spending on oil projects over the next five years,” Wafa al-Zaabi, head of planning at Kuwait Petroleum Corp, told an oil conference. “Over 30 billion dinars ($100 billion) will be spent on the local market and the rest abroad,” she said. Over two-thirds of the spending, or 23 billion dinars, has been allocated for exploration and production, Zaabi said. Kuwait aims to raise its production capacity, currently just over 3.0 million barrels per day, to 4.0 million bpd by 2020 and maintain it for another decade. Among main projects, it plans to build four gathering centres, carry out a key project to boost heavy oil production and raise output of free natural gas to over two billion cubic feet daily, from 150 million cubic feet currently, Zaabi said. Besides the upstream projects, Kuwait is currently implementing three downstream ventures costing over $30 billion. These include a new 615,000-bpd refinery and a clean fuel project to upgrade two of the three existing refineries, and a platform for LNG imports. Like other Gulf oil-exporting nations, Kuwait’s revenues have sharply dropped in the past 20 months due to a slump in oil prices. But the government has insisted it will continue capital investment as planned. Kuwait has amassed around $600 billion in surpluses in the 16 years to 2014 due to high oil prices. Around 95 percent of state revenues came from oil. Tramaine Brock Authentic Jersey
Our govt saved Rs. 360 billion leakages: PM
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that his government has saved over Rs.360 billion leakages in its campaign against corruption. “In our campaign to stop corruption, our government has saved over Rs. 360 billion leakages. About 16.2 million ration cards have been recovered,” said Modi at India Gate while giving accounts of his government’s performance in the past two years. “In Haryana, around six lakh fake ration cards were recovered,” he added. Modi further said: “Corruption has eaten away our country like termites. Those who looted our nation are not happy with our government.” “People ask me ‘Modiji you do such good work, then why are you criticised?’,” he said, adding what will people who get affected due to the steps taken by the government to stop corruption do except criticise. “No one can disagree that previous government was infected with corruption, but after we came to power we stressed on eradicating corruption,” he added. On cooking gas connections, Modi said: “In the next three years we will bring LPG connections to 50 million people.” Sam Mills Authentic Jersey
ONGC mulling buying majority stake in GSPC’s Krishna Godavri basin gas block
ONGC is mulling buying majority stake in GSPC’s Krishna Godavari basin gas block which will help prevent the Gujarat government firm’s Rs 195 billion loan from turning into an NPA. Since the BJP-led government took power in the Centre, Gujarat State Petroleum Corp Ltd (GSPC) is seeking to sell a majority stake in its KG-OSN-2001/3 (Deendayal) block in Bay of Bengal to Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), sources said. GSPC was to begin gas production from the block in 2013 but after sinking in $ 3.6 billion it was found that gas reserves are one-tenth of 20 trillion cubic feet claimed in 2005 and that too is technically difficult to produce. In the process it has amassed Rs 195.76 billion of debt, on which interest cost was Rs 18.041 billion in 2014-15, according to the CAG. And against this its revenue was Rs 1.525billion in 2014-15. Sources said GSPC has been doing trial production of a very small volume of gas from August 4, 2014 and has not yet reached commercial production and in absence of revenue commensurate with the debt servicing obligations it risks becoming a defaulter. To bail out of the situation, a few weeks back it offered to sell 50 per cent stake to ONGC, they said. Money from ONGC can repay a part of the debt and the remaining would become a joint liability of the two firms. Sources said GSPC also wants ONGC to use its undersea infrastructure for a fee. ONGC has gas discoveries in a neighbouring block and GSPC wants gas from those to be routed through its Deendayal block infrastructure for onward transportation to the shore. But the state-owned firm feels it was not technically feasible as its KG-D5 gas cannot be mixed with GSPC’s gas which has high levels of sulphur and carbon dioxide content. Also it is high-pressure and high-temperature gas. Besides, the GSPC facilities on Deendayal field are about 60-km away from the Cluster-II gas fields in ONGC’s KG-DWN-98/2 block and pumping gas that far is not feasible. Sources said ONGC feels it is not cost effective to install compressors on the seabed to pump gas from its fields to GSPC facilities. GSPC’s field is one of the most difficult fields in the world as cost of extracting gas would be in the vicinity of $12 per million British thermal unit, double the rate provided by the government currently, they said. The company is producing 0.6 million standard cubic metres per day (mmscmd) of gas from the field as trial production for almost two years now. As per the approved field development plan (FDP), natural gas production was to reach 3.83 mmscmd in second year and achieve peak output of 5.24 mmscmd in the third. Kavon Frazier Womens Jersey
In US, gasoline prices at 11-year low. But its days are numbered
Even with global oil prices grinding higher, American holiday travelers will see the cheapest prices at the pump in more than a decade for this holiday weekend, saving nearly 50 cents a gallon compared with last year. But the bargain-basement prices are probably fleeting. Declining oil supplies have led to a near doubling of crude prices since early February. On Thursday, the world’s benchmark prices breached $50 a barrel, and for the first time since August prices for regular gasoline have risen above $2 a gallon in all 50 states. The average gas station has raised its prices 17 cents a gallon over the last month — and 5 cents over the last week alone. The sharp decline in oil and gasoline prices since late 2014 because of a persistent global petroleum glut has been partly reversed in recent weeks as wildfires curbed production in Canada and rebel attacks throttled Nigerian oil exports. At the same time, oil companies are cutting back production in the United States and several other countries because of the recent collapse of oil prices — which still remain at levels that are roughly half what they were two years ago. And the low prices have raised demand for petroleum products in China, India and the United States. Oil and gasoline prices are not poised to return to levels of the days when crude was worth well over $100 a barrel, which became the norm in recent years. That was before the drilling frenzy in shale fields across the United States slashed imports and flooded the global market, while demand slowed in Europe and many developing markets. But the rig count in the United States is now down roughly 80 percent over the last two years, which means less exploration and production through the end of this year as output from older wells declines. Since service companies have slashed their payrolls, it will take as much as six months to rehire and organize new drilling crews to develop new wells, energy experts say. “The help the consumer has gotten in this weak economy from low oil prices is coming to an end,” said Larry Goldstein, a director of the Energy Policy Research Foundation, a research group funded by the government and oil industry. “The unanticipated supply disruptions are coming at the most inopportune time. Now U.S. production is declining and global inventories hare starting to decline along with it.” Oil executives and other experts say that still hefty global inventories will keep prices from rising to extremes anytime soon, but that oil prices are likely to rise at least another 10 percent during the next year. Further steady rises in price are expected through the end of the decade given the deep cuts in exploration investment across the global oil patch. But drivers probably should not worry about such projections too much for the rest of the summer. On Thursday, the average price for a gallon of regular gasoline nationally was $2.31, 43 cents below a year ago, according to the AAA motor club. The Oil Price Information Service, which monitors fuel prices, expects that the average national price this summer will be $2.25 to $2.50 a gallon of regular, the cheapest summer driving since 2009. Refinery repairs have been particularly helpful in reducing prices in California. AAA expects 34 million people to drive at least 50 miles this holiday weekend, the most since 2005. It is part of a broader trend of more road travel as the economy improves. Experts say the Memorial Day traffic is just the beginning of a summer of traffic jams at the nation’s beaches and mountain parks. “The statistics over the last two years have been dramatic in terms of numbers of increased road trips during the critical holiday periods,” said Bill Sutherland, senior vice president for travel and publishing at AAA. “As the roads become busier, and as the hotels become used, as restaurants fill up, you will want to be sure you have effectively planned out the trip.” In the meantime, economists say that they see a benefit for lower-income people, who spend the highest proportion of their salaries on energy and generally drive older, gas-guzzling vehicles. Some of the states with the lowest gasoline prices, like Mississippi, South Carolina and Arkansas, have a large number of lower-income workers, many of whom drive long distances to work. And some sectors of the economy, including tourism, are also benefiting. “People are driving more and eating out more, and employment in restaurants is up incredibly,” said Mine K. Yucel, director of research at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. “People care about oil prices because they see the price of gasoline on every street corner. They experience the change in price every week or 10 days, and they feel they have more cash in their pockets.” If nothing else, the rising price has raised morale in the U.S. oil patch. “There is a chance the price could go down pretty quick,” said Denzil West, president of Reliance Energy, a Texas driller. “With prices being a little more stable, we’re cautiously optimistic, but a lot of companies have been wrecked and all the fallout has not been seen yet.” Gino Gradkowski Jersey