Big idea clears skies to connect small towns
When the new civil aviation policy takes off, it will open up flights from Delhi to Bhatinda, Jaisalmer or to the coaching hub of Kota for just 2,500, almost matching train fares. At a meeting with the civil aviation ministry officials on May 25, state representatives have proposed routes from major hubs to tier II and small towns, with the potential of drawing good traffic. These routes are within one hour flying distance or less, and are eligible to offer tickets for 2,500 or less under the regional connectivity initiative. At present, only two per cent of Indians book an airline ticket. Studies have shown that 50 per cent of the middle income group travel only once in four years on a flight. The reason: airports are too far from their homes. Officials in the Ministry of Civil Aviations said most places proposed to be connected with major hubs such as Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai or Kochi have infrastructure in place to accommodate smaller aircraft. Carriers, however, are reluctant to fly to these places fearing losses. Tax incentives proposed under the new policy could help in reviving airports in smaller towns. Nico Siragusa Womens Jersey
New aviation policy may help airline startups take wing
The new aviation policy will lead to the launch of new airlines in the country bringing in more cities on the national network, according to civil aviation secretary Rajiv Nayan Choubey. India currently has Air Costa, Air Pegasus and Trujet which fly smaller planes and command between them 1.4% of the domestic market. Air India, Jet Airways and SpiceJet also have sizeable small plane operations. Several entrepreneurs have showed interest in starting new airlines even with a small fleet of three planes while the policy was being framed, Choubey said, adding that he was expecting new launches in the months ahead. A lot of small plane manufacturers too have been in touch with the ministry, Choubey said. The ministry has told the manufacturers that while they sell their planes in India, they should also create training and aircraft maintenance facilities and offer aircraft and better aircraft leasing terms. The ministry plans to subsidize airlines that aim to connect cities that have not been connected before. A cess on most domestic flights will be levied to create a corpus that could help keep the fares on such routes at about Rs.2,500. “Since inception, Air Pegasus has positioned itself to connect with small towns and cities like Hubli, Kadapa, Belgaum and the policy announced today aims at increasing the connectivity to such smaller towns and cities by offering sops and incentives. This should motivate players like us to increase our connectivity further more with smaller towns as the policy will refund 80% of the losses incurred by airlines due to the cap of Rs.2,500 for one-hour flights between smaller towns and cities,” said Shyson Thomas, managing director, Air Pegasus. To be sure, many short-haul routes in the country like Delhi-Dehradun, Jammu-Srinagar and others are already available for as little as Rs.1,100 when booked in advance. The policy aims to take the number of such city pairs up, but experts say it’s going to be a challenging task. Ty Montgomery Jersey
Gazprom and Indian companies to collaborate on oil and gas projects
A working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, and Dharmendra Pradhan, Indian Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, took place today at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2016. The parties discussed potential avenues for cooperation in the oil and gas sector. Particular attention was paid to the possibility of supplying LNG to India from Gazprom Group’s international portfolio, including under the existing contract with GAIL. In addition, the meeting participants addressed the prospects for collaboration between Gazprom and Indian companies in the field of oil and gas exploration and development, as well as scientific and technical cooperation. Background With 1.5 trillion cubic meters of natural gas in proven reserves, India ranks fourth among Asian countries (with China, Australia, and Indonesia in the top three) in terms of gas reserves. India’s Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas controls and regulates oil and natural gas production, processing and distribution, as well as oil and petroleum exports and imports. GAIL is India’s largest gas company focused on gas exploration, production, transmission and processing, marketing of gas derivatives, and gas-fired power generation. Between 2009 and 2016, Gazprom Group delivered 26 LNG cargoes to India totaling 1.7 million tons. In 2012, Gazprom Marketing & Trading Singapore, which is part of Gazprom Group, and GAIL signed a long-term Sales and Purchase Agreement for liquefied natural gas. The 20-year Agreement provides for LNG supplies in the amount of 2.5 million tons per year on a free-on-board basis, with potential for renewal. Marshall Faulk Jersey
Petronet picks Qatari producer Rasgas to supply cargo: Trade sources
India’s Petronet has picked Qatari liquefied natural gas (LNG) producerRasgas to deliver a single cargo in August or September, trade sources said. Rasgas clinched the deal at an estimated price of $5.10 per million British thermal units, the sources said. Jake Muzzin Womens Jersey
IndianOil, OIL and BPRL sign agreement with Rosneft
The Indian Consortium, led by Oil India Limited (OIL), along with, Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) and Bharat PetroResources Limited (BPRL), a 100% subsidiary of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), signed definitive agreement to acquire upto 23.9% shares from Rosneft Oil Company (Rosneft), NOC of Russia in JSC Vankorneft, a company organised under the law of Russian Federation which is the owner of Vankor and North Vankor Field licenses. The acquisition is subject to relevant Board, Government and regulatory approvals and is expected to close by September 2016. The agreement was signed on 17 June 2016 during the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) held in St. Petersburg in the presence of Dharmendra Pradhan, Hon. Minister of State-Independent Charge, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Government of India, and Alexander Novak, Minister of Energy, Russia, by B Ashok, Chairman, IndianOil; Biswajit Roy, Director (HR & BD), OIL; D Rajkumar, Managing Director, BPRL; and Igor I Sechin, President, Chairman of the Management Board, Vice-Chairman of Board of Directors of Rosneft. Presently Rosneft Oil Company holds 85% shares while ONGC Videsh Ltd (through its subsidiary) holds 15% shares in JSC Vankorneft. Vankor field, located in East Siberia, is Russia’s second largest field by production and accounts for around 4% of Russian production and currently producing oil at a level of approximately 422,000 bopd. It is the largest of the fields, discovered and commissioned in Russia during the last twenty five years and is located in the North of Eastern Siberia in Turukhansk District of the Krasnoyarsk Territory 142 km away from Igarka town. The recoverable resources of the Vankor field as of 01.01.2016 stood at 361 million tonnes of oil and condensate and 138 bcm of gas. With the closure of the Vankor deal, IndianOil’s equity oil portfolio will go up by 1.6 MMT per annum. The agreement takes forward the shared vision of the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, and the Hon’ble President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, to strengthen the India-Russia partnership over the next decade, especially in the hydrocarbons sector. Commenting on the occasion, Dharmendra Pradhan, Hon. Minister of State-Independent Charge, Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, Government of India, said, “The agreement will further strengthen the long-standing relationship between Indian PSUs and Rosneft, paving the way for an enriching journey together. The acquisitions also have significant strategic importance to India, both in terms of augmenting India’s energy security as well as enhancing India’s stature in the global political and economic arenas.” Marquis Haynes Jersey
Complaint against Essar forwarded to Home Ministry
Lawyer Suren Uppal alleges that Essar Group ordered its former security chief Albasit Khan to tap into its business rivals’ telephone conversations. Complaint into the alleged tapping of telephone conversations of some top industrialists and politicians by the Essar Group has been forwarded to Home Ministry for “appropriate action”. The complaint was made to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) by lawyer Suren Uppal alleging that the Essar Group had ordered its former security chief Albasit Khan to tap into its business rivals’ telephone conversations. “Complaint regarding Essar leaks has been forwarded to Home Ministry for appropriate action,” official sources said. The complaint includes call logs for purported conversations of Mukesh and Anil Ambani with Directors/ Promoters of the two companies and other senior officials as well as conversations that show how business rivals reach out to politicians to seek favours. The complaint also mentioned purported conversations of senior officials of the PMO including Ranjan Bhattacharya and Brajesh Mishra. Essar has denied any wrongdoing. T. J. Watt Authentic Jersey
Indian Oil Corp slashes oil import tender time by half
Indian Oil Corp (IOC) has cut by more than half the time it takes to finalise a crude oil import tender after the government gave flexibility to state refiners to devise their own crude import policies. IOC, the nation’s largest oil firm, used to take 26 hours to decide on a tender for import of crude oil from spot or current market. In April, after the Cabinet gave state-owned oil refiners freedom to devise their own crude import policies, the time has been shrunk to 12 hours, a senior company official said. Time for deciding on tenders for export of petroleum products or fuel has been cut to just 9 hours from previous 35 hours. “Earlier, we had a three-member committee comprising two company executives and one senior official of the ministry of petroleum and natural gas to decide on awarding tenders for import of crude oil from the spot market. “Now we have an internal committee which can take decisions quickly,” he said. The government gave flexibility to oil PSUs to help them secure cheaper oil cargoes in an oversupplied market. The new policy almost puts state-owned refiners on par with private firms like Reliance Industries and Essar Oil. “We now have greater flexibility but still to operate within the framework of (anti-corruption watchdog) CVC guidelines,” the official said. The previous policy limited purchases to a handful of companies, often leading to PSUs missing out on chance to grab cheap, distressed cargoes. Oil PSUs, on an average, import 70-80 per cent of their oil through annual supply deals, also called term contracts. The remaining is bought from the spot or current market through tenders. Term imports on official selling price of the exporter country and there is not much that can be done about it. Tyler Kroft Jersey
Essar Oil looks to double petrol pumps to 4,300 in 18 months
Essar Oil, India’s second largest private oil refiner, plans to nearly double its petrol pumps to 4,300 in next 18 months, a senior company executive said. “We have 2,225 petrol pumps now which we will increase to 4,300 in next 18 months,” Essar Oil’s CEO Retail Madhur Taneja said. The retail network expansion planned is on franchise model and will entail an investment of about Rs 25 billion by the pump owners. “We were the first private company to enter fuel retailing business when we in 2003 opened our first petrol station,” he said. The network was expanded to 1,400 outlets before the expansion was frozen in 2008-09 in view of private retailers being unable to compete with heavily subsidised public sector oil firms. After diesel price was deregulated or freed from government control in October 2014, the expansion was restarted and network has reached 2,225 now, he said. “We saw sales volume increase from 700,000 kilolitres in 2014-15 to 1.67 million kl in 2015-16 and we hope to continue to grow at over 100 per cent this year as well against an industry growth of 7-7.5 per cent,” he said. Essar Oil has a pan-India network now except for Jammu and Kashmir and the North East, he said. Its first petrol pump came up in Maharashtra about 13 years ago in 2003. Essar Oil was the first private company to enter petro product retailing in India at a time when the government was experimenting with the idea of deregulated oil pricing by freeing up the price of ATF. After a brief spell of deregulated product pricing, the diesel market was again regulated in 2004. The move posed challenges for private oil companies like Essar. Through the course of this regulation regime, Essar Oil, in a bid to keep its retail ambitions alive, provided financial support to its franchisees through various schemes, thus helping them in tiding over the difficult times, he said. This earned the company the dealers’ trust. In October 2014 when diesel prices were completely deregulated and private retailers were given a level playing field with their PSU counterparts, the company already had a network of about 1,400 retail outlets. Over the last two years, Essar Oil has been on a ramp-up drive to create a larger retail footprint across the length and breadth of the country. Many outlets in its existing network were revived and work began on launching new Essar Oil pumps. Essar Oil’s franchisee model entails giving the petrol pump operator a land lease rental for the land he brings for setting up the outlet. Also, he is paid an pre-agreed return on the investment made in setting up the outlet as well as commission on petrol and diesel sold, he said. Robert Alford Jersey