HPCL, GAIL to divest up to 50% stake in petrochem plant in Andhra Pradesh
Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) and gas utility GAIL India Ltd will divest up to 50 per cent stake in the Rs 300 billion petrochemical plant which is being set up in Andhra Pradesh. HPCL and GAIL are looking at setting up a 1 million tons Ethylene Derivatives plant, which will produce a wide range of petrochemical raw materials for the manufacture of detergents, paints and coatings, cosmetics, textiles and adhesives. “Currently, it is a 50:50 project but we are open to inducting a strategic partner,” HPCL Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh K Surana told here. The project at Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh, will cost Rs 300 billion. “We are willing to give up to 50 per cent stake in the project to the strategic partner,” he said. Some global petro hem companies have shown interest in the project but talks are at preliminary stage currently, he said without disclosing details. The planned project is a truncated version of the earlier proposed refinery-cum-petrochemicals complex in Andhra Pradesh. HPCL has for the timebeing shelved plans to build a new refinery and is only pursuing petrochemical project. HPCL and GAIL decided to do the petrochem plan together after their plans to team up with France’s Total, Lakshmi N Mittal Group and Oil India Ltd (OIL) for a 15 million tonnes a year refinery-cum-petrochemical plant at Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh fell through. “That project fell as partners pulled out one after the other due to weak global demand,” another official said. “Now, HPCL and GAIL are looking at setting up a petrochemical plant at the Petroleum, Chemical and Petrochemicals Investment Region (PCPIR) sites identified by the state government at Kakinada.” Surana said currently detailed feasibility report (DFR) is being prepared and details will work out following that. HPCL owns a 7.5 million tons refinery at Mumbai and a 8.3 million tons unit at Vizag. While the Vizag plant is being expanded to 15 million tons, HPCL is expanding the Mumbai refinery to 9.5 million tons at a cost of Rs 40 billion by 2019, he said. Vizag refinery will also be expanded to 15 million tons by 2020 at a cost of Rs 209.28 billion. It has also setting up a 9 million tons refinery at Barmer in Rajasthan at the cost of Rs 373.20 billion. But the project hinges on the state government giving fiscal incentives, he said. HPCL had in 2007-08 planned an only-for-exports refinery to target demand in South East Asia and the Middle East. The five-way alliance of HPCL, explorer OIL, gas utility GAIL India, Mittal Investment Sarl and Total had in October 2007 signed a memorandum of understanding to look at the feasibility of setting up the Vizag project. In 2009, the Rs 500 billion project was put on hold as petrochemical demand then was seen as too weak to justify the investment. Total did pre-feasibility for the refinery project and demand studies, while GAIL was in charge of the study of the petrochemical unit. But the project was in 2010 put on back burner before equity structure could be decided Chad Thomas Womens Jersey
NGT slaps Rs 1 billion damages on shipping firm for oil spill
A Panama-based shipping company and its two Qatar-based sister concerns were today directed by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to pay up Rs 1 billion as damages for causing an oil spill when a cargo vessel sank off Mumbai coast in 2011, damaging marine ecology. While asking the three companies to pay Rs billion as environmental compensation (EC) to the Ministry of Shipping, a bench headed by NGT Chairperson Swatanter Kumar also ordered Gujarat-based Adani Enterprises Ltd to pay Rs 50 million as EC for dumping in the seabed 60054 MT coal, being carried by the ship M V RAK, and polluting the marine environment. The tribunal asked Republic of Panama’s Delta Shipping Marine Services SA, Qatar-based Delta Navigation WLL and Delta Group International to pay Rs 1 million to the Ministry, observing that reports showed that the documents in favour of the ship were issued in a biased manner and the vessel was “not seaworthy”, right from the inception of its voyage. It also held the respondents to be defaulting entities which had adopted the “most careless and reckless attitude” in protecting the marine environment. “We are of the considered view that determined damages of Rs 1 million should be paid by and recovered from respondents number 5, 7 and 11, jointly and severally while respondent number 6 is held liable to pay Rs 50 million as environmental compensation for dumping of the cargo in the sea and then failing to take any precautionary or preventive measures. “The consignment of 60054 MT of coal has caused marine pollution and continues to be a cause and concern for environmental pollution. The respondents are defaulting entities which have not complied with law and have adopted a most careless and reckless attitude in relation to protecting the marine environment,” the bench, also comprising Judicial Member U D Salvi, Expert Members A R Yousuf and Ranjan Chatterjee, said in its 223-page judgement. The tribunal constituted a committee to look into various aspects, including to study and report to it within a month on whether removal of the ship wreck and cargo from its present location should be directed as per global conventions and in the interest of marine environment. NGT passed the verdict on a petition filed by Samir Mehta, a Mumbai-based environmentalist, who had sought compensation for damages caused to the marine ecology due to the oil spill. The ship, which was sailing from Indonesia to Dahej in Gujarat, sank 20 nautical miles off the South Mumbai coast in the Arabian Sea on August 4, 2011. The vessel was owned by Delta Shipping Marine Services SA. While Delta Navigation WLL and Delta Group International were responsible for its voyage. The ship was also carrying more than 60,000 metric tons of coal for Adani Enterprises Ltd thermal power plant in Gujarat besides containing 290 tons of fuel oil and 50 tons of diesel. The bench said it was “a clear case where negligence is attributable to the four firms” and added that it was not a case of sinking of a ship by “accident simpliciter”. “But it is a case where element of mens rea can be traced from the unfolding of the events that finally led to the sinking of the ship on August 4, 2011. Non-rendering of requisite help by the ship owner and other persons interested and responsible, to the Master of the ship, despite the fact that they had complete knowledge about the status of the ship prior to the occurrence of the incident on August 4, 2011. “The ship had developed mechanical and technical snags at Colombo and Singapore and the Master of the ship had asked for help there during its onward journey. There is nothing on record to show that ship owner and other respondents provided timely assistance to the Master of the ship,” it said. The bench said “on the true and purposive construction of the International Conventions and the statutory provisions afore-referred, no party from any country in the world has the right/privilege to sail an unseaworthy ship to the Contiguous and Exclusive Economic Zone of India and in any event to dump the same in such waters, causing marine pollution, damage or degradation thereof.” It said the ship and its cargo should be removed by the four companies or they shall get it removed within six months from the date of submission of report of the committee, consituted by it, before the tribunal. “The liabilities to pay environmental compensation as aforedirected are on account of and subject to adjustments, after the submission of the final report by the Committee,” it added. A year before this oil spill off the Mumbai coast, another such accident had occured in the Gulf of Mexico when an oil rig ‘Deepwater Horizon’ had exploded, leading to sea- floor oil gushing out for 87 days till it was capped. Eleven people had gone missing in what is considered to be the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry. In July 2015, after a long legal battle, BP, formerly known as British Petroleum which owned the rig, agreed to pay USD 18.7 billion in fines, the largest corporate settlement in US history so far. Lester Hayes Authentic Jersey
How India Saved $470 Million a Year With Real-Time Data
A new system for LPG pricing in India involved real-time consumption data. Name of Organization: Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. Industry: Oil and gas Location: Mumbai, Maharashtra, India Business Opportunity or Challenge Encountered: When the Indian government decontrolled petroleum prices recently, that paved the way for market-driven LPG pricing in India. But for Indian Oil, the challenge to tie prices to the market was immense. The company has 43,000 customer touchpoints in oil and gas refining, distribution, and retailing. LPG pricing in India: The Indian government used to have a dual pricing system for liquid petroleum gas, including a subsidized and market price. “We have the largest refining capacity in India,” says Abhishek Choudhary, manager of information systems at Indian Oil, which is 80-percent owned by the Indian government. The company faced challenges implementing a dual pricing system for liquid petroleum gas (LPG). As Choudhary explained, every household in Indian has a connection for LPG, which Indians use for cooking. The Indian government subsidizes LPG, but wanted to bring the product under market pricing while still allowing subsidies to continue through direct transfers to a customer’s bank account. How This Business Opportunity or Challenge Was Met: Indian Oil deployed the Informatica Platform, which included the Vibe Data Stream and Real-Time Data Integration components. The challenge was to be able to recognize if a sale qualified for a government subsidy, and to immediately transfer money into the consumer’s bank account, versus selling LPG at a separate subsidized price. “We converted our systems into a real-time consumption package,” says Choudhary. “We actually know how much consumption happened yesterday night. We’re capturing real-time data from secondary sales through gas stations across India.” Leveraging Internet of Things capabilities also plays a role in the effort, Choudhary adds. The initiative takes “old-line LPG and petrol refinery stuff, and modernizes it with the real-time analytics from Informatica,” Choudhary points out. “We’re getting this data on a real-time basis, and then putting in systems or real-time systems that decide whether these subsidies get transferred to consumers or not, to make settlement.” Measurable/Quantifiable and “Soft” Benefits from This Initiative: Indian Oil saw a number of benefits from real-time data integration, including: ? The audited savings from the effort were $470 million a year, which included benefits of $200 million in a year preventing subsidy leakage by integrating consumer accounts across LPG companies in India. ? The company met the goals of the Indian Government to remove$1.5 billion (USD) in budget provisioning for LPG subsidies. Rather, the new system ensured that $125 million in subsidies reached the correct end consumer. Plus, citizens can log into the system and check the status of their accounts, Choudhary adds. ? Indian Oil was able to make better decisions on dynamic pricing of petroleum and gas as well as achieve better monitoring of stock and dispensing units at retail outlets. Monitoring enabled preventative maintenance on equipment and averted market dry-out situations at petrol stations. The impact, however, goes well beyond the company, and is playing a role in the Indian economy, Choudhary says. “We are capturing the data on a real-time basis direct from these devices and applying real-time analytics. We’re sourcing the secondary sales coming out of these deals. Once we have this data, since we control 70 percent of the Indian market, we actually know the consumption that India is having on a real-time basis. That is huge data.” The real-time initiative is helping to “change the way business is done in India, at least for the oil industry,” he adds. “The sheer magnitude makes it so large, that up to today, we have actually transferred $120 billion into the banking industry that was not there.” Jordan Reed Authentic Jersey