India, Canada hold third round of energy dialogue in Delhi
The third round of the India-Canada joint energy dialogue was held here on Thursday in the context of both nations seeking to expand co-operation in the sector, the government said on Thursday. “Received Energy Minister of Canada Mr Jim Carr for the 3rd India-Canada Energy Dialogue in New Delhi,” Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said in a tweet. Canadian Minister of Natural Resources Carr is leading a high-level business delegation to India from September 7 to 9, which includes representatives from Canadian natural resources and tecnology firms. He is the first Canadian minister to visit India after the formation of the Justin Trudeau government there. “This is the 1st Ministerial Visit 4m Canada after the new Govt has taken charge;Discussed whole range of issues to further energy cooperation,” Pradhan said in another tweet. India and Canada signed an agreement last year for the latter to supply uranium for five years to fuel Indian nuclear power plants. “Both sides agreed to define a clear roadmap of actionable areas of joint collaboration in a time bound manner,” Pradhan said in a separate tweet. Carr on Wednesday delivered the keynote address at Renewable Energy India Expo at Greater Noida, where he emphasised his country’s commitment to clean energy and innovation. “IOC (Indian Oil Corp) along with its partners has 10% stake in Pacific North West LNG Project & is expected to offload 1.34 MT of LNG once it gets operational,” Pradhan added, referring to Indo-Canadian cooperation in the area of natural gas. Jean Segura Womens Jersey
ONGC denies prior knowledge of link with RIL gas field
The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) had no prior knowledge of its KG Basin reservoir being connected with that of Reliance’s before 2013, its chairman DK Sarraf has said, disputing an official committee finding. But the state-run company is happy that the panel confirmed the flow of gas to RIL’s adjoining field, he said. Talking to reporters on Thursday, Sarraf alleged that the staterun firm’s submissions were not reflected in the final report of A P Shah, the retired chief justice of Delhi High Court tasked with studying the gas dispute between ONGC and Reliance Industries (RIL) after the state-run company accused RIL of pumping out natural gas from its adjacent field in KG Basin. The recently submitted report said RIL and ONGC probably knew for long about their reservoirs being connected but didn’t bring it to the notice of the regulator on time. “We had no knowledge of this earlier. And as soon as ONGC came to know of this, it took effective action in 2013. Whatever submissions we had made to the Shah committee, there is no mention of that (in the report). We do not know what is the reason for that. And why there is no mention of our submissions. But conclusion did appear in the Shah committee report,” Sarraf told a news conference in the company’s first response to the Shah Panel findings. The panel found that gas had indeed migrated from ONGC’s fields to the adjoining field of Reliance and that the latter had produced it, leaving the reservoir depleted with no scope for development. The panel said that RIL made unjust gains from this. “We had said about two years back that we apprehend that some portion of natural gas has flown from our fields to the fields of Reliance adjacent to us. It was a very tough statement to be made… But we are happy to report that our apprehension has been confirmed by the committee,” Sarraf said. The panel has also said that the government alone can claim compensation for the gas that Reliance had pumped out, not ONGC, pointing out that the latter failed to develop its field for years. “Whether we get paid for that or government of India will be paid for that is a subsequent thing, which would need to be addressed by various stakeholders,” Sarraf said without commenting on the next course of action or whether ONGC would approach the court for this. Two years back, ONGC approached the Delhi High Court alleging Reliance Industries was illegally pumping out gas from the adjacent fields of the state firm. Following this, the two firms appointed a US-based technical consultant to study the data to find out if it was correct. The court ordered the government to help resolve the dispute within six months of the submission of the consultant’s report. The Shah panel was set up to study the consultant report and quantify any unjust gains made by Reliance Industries. The panel in its report, however, said the oil ministry itself should determine the amount of compensation because the panel had technical limitations. RILhas not reacted officially to the report but had maintained in the past that it had drilled strictly within its own block and had done so with full knowledge of relevant authorities. Natrell Jamerson Womens Jersey
Cheap oil propels RIL to 8th top global oil company
Powered by low oil prices and rising refining margins, India’s Reliance Industries has leapfrogged to rank 8th among 250 global energy companies in the latest survey released by Platts. In the same list state-owned Indian Oil Corporation ranked 14th. Reliance Industries has been ranked 8th among top 10 global oil companies in ‘Platts Top 250 Global Energy Company Rankings 2016’, up from 14th last year, while state-owned Indian Oil Corporation jumped to 14th from 66th last year and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation bettered its ranking to 48th from 133rd last year. Oil & Natural Gas Corp Ltd, the country’s top oil explorer, however, slipped to 20th position this year from 17th a year ago, on the back of low oil prices. “The ranking reflected the oil market’s biggest price collapse in nearly three decades, a resulting re-drawing of the lines in the fuels mix and the successes of energy players less exposed to the price rout triggered by OPEC’s defence of its global oil market prominence,” it said. The Platts Top 250 Global Energy Companies 2016 ranks publicly traded energy companies with assets above $5 billion based on a combination of asset value, revenue, profit and return on invested capital (ROIC) for 2015 (January-December) fiscal year. “India was also the only prominent country for coal demand, boosting Coal India’s standing in the world energy companies,” it added. “Strong performance of the coal industry enabled the largest pure coal mining company in the world, Coal India, to hold its place at 38th in the top 250 ranks. Consumption rose nearly 5 per cent, regaining its share as the dominant fuel in the energy mix at 56 per cent, Platts said. Adani Power Ltd, an independent power producer was ranked 250th. With a 3-year compound growth rate of 54.9 per cent the company is the fastest growing energy company in Asia-Pacific and the second fastest in the world. Elandon Roberts Womens Jersey
ONGC in talks to acquire stake in GSPC gas field
Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) is in talks with Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC) for acquiring a stake in its gas field in the Krishna-Godavari Basin, ONGC chairman and managing director, D.K. Sarraf said. “We have been talking to GSPC for acquiring a certain percentage stake in their field… some technical studies have been done on the field since it’s a difficult field and the investment is high,” Sarraf told reporters after an annual general meeting of ONGC in the capital. ONGC, the country’s flagship public sector oil and gas explorer, has appointed Ryder Scott as a technical consultant for evaluation of the GSPC’s assets and Sarraf said that the evaluation is currently underway. GSPC owns an 80 per cent participating interest in the KG Basin block while Jubilant and Geo Global Resources have 10 per cent each. Heavy investments in the block had driven GSPC’s debt to Rs.197 billion by the end of March 2015. No objection Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had recently said that the government would have no objection if ONGC and GSPC reached an understanding on a stake sale. Sarraf expressed surprise that the Justice A.P. Shah committee report, which has confirmed the PSU firm’s apprehension that gas had flown from its gas block in the KG basin to an adjoining block owned by Reliance Industries (RIL), implies that ONGC was aware of the problem earlier but remained silent till 2013. “The A.P. Shah Committee has confirmed that gas has flown from our field to Reliance Industries’ field and a significant portion has already been produced. Many consequences follow out of that, including whether we get paid or the government of India should get paid (for unjust enrichment),” the ONGC chief said. “We told the committee we had no knowledge of this earlier. It was a very tough statement to make when we raised our apprehensions (but) as soon as we got to know, we took action in 2013 by approaching regulatory authorities,” Sarraf said, adding that the strong submissions on this aspect made to the committee have not been mentioned in the report. “It seems there is no mention of our submission on this in the report and I don’t know the reason why that’s not part of the report,” he said. The committee’s report, submitted on August 31, noted that Reliance should pay the government for unjust enrichment by drawing gas from an adjacent block, but also recorded an RIL charge that ONGC knew of the connectivity issue way back in 2007. When asked if ONGC was confident of getting the government’s support in its dispute with Reliance, given that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s image was used in an ad for Reliance’s new telecom business soon after Pradhan committed to act on the A.P. Shah report, Sarraf said the two issues are unrelated. Centre unbiased “The current government is acting without any bias for public or private sector players. This is my firm belief. That the government itself appointed a committee to look into the matter confirms it means business,” Sarraf said. Mark McGwire Womens Jersey
Indian Oil Paradip plant to start making gasoline by year-end, says executive
The Paradip refinery was designed to produce Euro IV- and Euro V-compliant fuels India’s biggest refiner Indian Oil Corp (IOC) plans to start producing gasoline at its Paradip refinery before the year ends following a delay caused by problems at a secondary unit, an executive said on Thursday. IOC started up the 300,000 barrels per day Paradip refinery in late 2015 and has a continuous catalytic reformer (CCR) which turns naphtha into gasoline. The CCR was commissioned in March but was functional only for a week due to compressor problems, prompting IOC to export the naphtha volumes. The (Paradip) refinery is designed not to make naphthabut we have problems with one of the units. We do not want to export naphtha. It is heavy losses for us,” said Sanjiv Singh, executive director of IOC’s refineries division, on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Petroleum Conference in Singapore. “We want to convert naphtha into gasoline and petrochemicals,” added Singh. Singh added that he expects the compressor problem to be resolved in about a month’s time but it will still take a few weeks to clear out the naphtha stocks. Once the secondary unit stabilises, IOC aims to stop exporting naphtha, which is generating crack margins of only $34.98 a metric ton to Brent crude currently, versus $86.03 a year ago. Dwight Gooden Authentic Jersey