IPCL to adopt smart grid with USTDA in Gaya
India Power Corporation Ltd has entered into a partnership with US Trade & Development Agency to implement smart gird technology on India Power’s distribution network – particularly to its Gaya Franchise in Bihar. It will boost efficiency and reliability while minimizing wastage. A smart grid is commonly characterized by the application of digital processing and communications to centralize data flow and information management. American expertise will help overcome challenges like integration of new grid information – one of the key issues in designs of smart grids. At present, electric utilities now find themselves making three classes of transformations: improvement of infrastructure; addition of the digital layer; and business process transformation, necessary to capitalize on the investments in smart technology. Much of the work going on in electric grid modernization, especially for substations and distribution automation, is now included in the general concept of the smart grid. The opportunity to conduct USTDA sponsored technical assistance for IPCL will be completed by interested US firms through Federal Business Opportunities. Marqise Lee Authentic Jersey
IndiGo opts for bigger single-aisle planes for overseas expansion
IndiGo is for the first time opting for bigger aircraft in the single-aisle segment, as it steps up overseas expansion plans. India’s biggest airline by market share has tweaked part of its aircraft order, converting 20 Airbus A320Neo planes to A321Neos, said two people in the know. In IndiGo’s single-class configuration, the A321 will have a sitting capacity of over 230, compared to the A320’s 180. The airline has a total of 422 planes on order. After the tweak, 402 of them will be A320s and the rest A321s. The A321s will start coming in from 2019, said one of the executives. He added the conversion was a clause in the initial plane purchase contract between IndiGo and Airbus. There’s also a possibility that IndiGo may opt for the A321LR (Long Range) planes, touted as the longest range single aisle jetliner in the world. The shift to bigger planes highlights IndiGo’s bigger plans for overseas operations. The airline currently flies to five neighbouring overseas destinations: Kathmandu, Dubai, Singapore, Muscat and Bangkok. India is ahead of the world in terms of domestic air travel demand growth, say figures from the International Air Transport Association. But experts have said that at the breakneck speed in which capacity is slated to be added by airlines in the next few years,supply will outstrip demand. Also, with the government relaxing rules to fly international—domestic airlines now need 20 planes in their fleet, compared to the earlier requirement of 20 planes and 5 years of local operations—airline such as Go Air and Vistara have been drawing ambitious plans to fly international. The Indian government has also opened up talks for enhanching bilateral air traffic rights—airlines of two countries deploy equal number of seats/flights in the air route—which means foreign carriers too will increase capacity to India. Under all such cases, IndiGo needs to step on its international expansion plans. This A321 has a stretched fuselage with an overall length of 44.51 metres, along with an extended operating range of up to 3,000 nautical miles (5,556 kilometers) while carrying a maximum passenger payload, according to the Airbus website. The A321LR will be able to do 4,000 nautical miles (7,408 kilometers). D.J. Swearinger Authentic Jersey
Petrobras cuts spending, raises asset sales goal in five-year plan
Brazil’s state-led oil company Petrobras on Tuesday cut planned investments by 25 percent in a drive to reduce the largest debt burden among global petroleum producers and revive investor confidence battered by a corruption scandal. Petrobras contributes about 10 percent of the nation’s economic output and Brazil’s government, the company’s controlling shareholder, is counting on it to help pull the economy out of its worst recession in decades. Petroleo Brasileiro SA, as Petrobras is formally known, pledged up to $74.1 billion in capital spending for the 2017-2021 period compared with a $98.4 billion target in the prior four-year 2015-2019 plan, according to a securities filing. This program outlines Petrobras’ smallest capital budget since 2006 and fell short of the $82.7 billion average forecast of eight analysts surveyed by Reuters. Petrobras reaffirmed its goal of $15.1 billion in asset sales for the 2015-2016 period and plans to raise an additional $19.5 billion through divestments and partnerships between 2017 and 2018. The company said it could sell as much as $40 billion of assets over the next 10 years. Chief Executive Officer Pedro Parente is seeking to cut the company’s $125 billion of debt, amassed after years of state-directed policies overstretched the company. Parente faces several obstacles including the lowest oil prices in a decade, a corruption scandal highlighting governance flaws, and its struggle to recover from huge losses incurred over many years because of government-mandated fuel subsidies. Petrobras’s stock rose 2.68 percent in afternoon trading in Sao Paulo. Its U.S.-traded common stock rose 1.31 percent in New York. Speaking to reporters in Rio de Janeiro, Parente vowed to cut costs and sharpen the focus on high-return activities to restore profitability. “This plan should start bearing fruit within two years, when we expect to have strong metrics that will allow us to return to the good situation of a few years back,” said Parente, who was appointed in May to turn around the struggling oil giant. In line with focusing on oil and gas production, Petrobras said it will exit the biofuels business by selling ethanol and biodiesel production assets. The plan shows how far Parente, appointed by new President Michel Temer, is prepared to go to reverse the policies of former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, removed from office in August for breaking budget laws. OUTPUT MAINTAINED “Lower capital spending makes absolute sense as the company aims at decreasing cash burn to accommodate interest and debt payments and to avoid stretching even further its balance sheet,” said Rodolfo de Angele, an analyst with JPMorgan Securities in Sao Paulo, in a note to clients. Exploration and production will get 82 percent of the investment budget. Spending on “downstream” refining, natural gas distribution and electricity generation will see spending cut 24 percent to $12.4 billion. While investment cuts were bigger than analysts expected, production targets were largely unchanged. Petrobras expects crude output in Brazil to fall in 2017 to 2.07 million barrels per day (bpd) from an average 2.22 million bpd in August. However, the company maintained its target of 2.70 million bpd for 2020, 16 percent above the median estimate of analysts surveyed by Reuters. The company expects to produce 2.77 million bpd in 2021. Total output of domestic and international oil and natural gas equivalent is expected to rise 19 percent in the 2017-2021 period to an average of 3.41 million bpd. Before the plan was released, Luana Siegfried, oil and gas analyst at Raymond James in Houston, said failure to cut the outlook for 2020 Brazil crude oil production in the face of significant budget cuts raises the risk Petrobras will fall short of its promises. In the past 14 years Petrobras has met its annual oil output target only once, in 2015. Parente said that big efficiency gains and higher-than-expected output from new offshore wells will allow Petrobras to meet its targets in the years ahead. The business plan is based on a price of Brent crude oil averaging $48 a barrel in 2017 rising to $71 a barrel in 2021. The plan expects the U.S. dollar to be worth an average of 3.55 reais in 2017, strengthening to 3.71 reais in 2021. Ryan Ramczyk Authentic Jersey
Groundwork for Rs 16,500-crore Navi Mumbai airport to take off next month
Work on construction of the Navi Mumbai international airport (NMIA) is set to start next month, almost two decades after a second international airport for Mumbai was proposed. The state government wants Prime Minister Narendra Modi to perform the bhoomi pujan for the Rs 16,500 crore project in the last week of October. According to sources, Cidco, the nodal authority, has made a proposal to this effect and the Devendra Fadnavis government is trying to ensure Modi’s presence for the inauguration of the project that has been bedevilled by various issues — from villagers’ protests over compensation to a plethora of clearances. In mid-October, work will start on mobilizing resources, men, material and machinery for the cutting of the Ulwe hill and diversion of the Ulwe river. But the actual infrastructure work will start only after the bhoomi puja, a Cidco official said. The hill cutting and river diversion will be a major part of the Rs 4500-5000 crore first phase of the airport development by a strategic partner — the financial bid for strategic partner is in the final stages. The other work that will be part of the first phase is the construction of the runways, terminal building, ATC and hangars. The infrastructure work will be videographed and archived, officials said. The stage II of forest clearance from the Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) paving the way for the airport development work in the core areas is expected soon. The story of the dream project traces way back to 1997 when the civil aviation ministry constituted a committee to examine various sites for a second international airport for Mumbai. In May 2009, the MoEF issued notification for amending the CRZ notification of 1991 permitting greenfield airport at Navi Mumbai in CRZ areas, subject to environmental safeguards. Doug Baldwin Jersey
PIA cancels flights to northern cities over Indo-Pak tensions
Pakistan’s national flag carrier PIA today cancelled flights to northern Pakistani cities due to “air space restrictions” in the wake of Uri terrorist attack. Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) called off flights to Gilgit and Skardu in Gilgit-Baltistan region in Pakistan- occupied-Kashmir (PoK) and Chitral in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. “As per directives of CAA (Civil Aviation Authority), the air space over Northern areas will remain closed on Wednesday. Inconvenience regretted,” PIA spokesperson Danyal Gilani said on Twitter. He did not give any reason for closure of air space but officials said that Pakistani warplanes might be in the air to keep vigil due to Indo-Pak tensions after the Uri attack. Eighteen soldiers were killed and over a dozen others injured as heavily armed militants stormed a battalion headquarters of the Indian Army in North Kashmir’s Uri town early Sunday. Four militants involved in the terror strike were killed by the Army. Taurean Prince Jersey
Bad days for national oil companies to continue, Fitch says
The National Oil Companies (NOCs) in South and South-East Asia unlikely to return to positive free cash generation in the next two years, said a Fitch Ratings report. Most of the NOCs reported poor financial result for the first half or first quarter ended on June 30 due to a fall in average oil and gas prices from a year ago. Revenue and EBITDA declined over this period for Malaysia’s Petroliam Nasional Berhad (PETRONAS); Thailand’s PTT Public Company Limited; and India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) and Oil India Limited. “Revenue fell for Indonesia’s PT Pertamina (Persero), but it was the only NOC with higher EBITDA because its downstream businesses performed strongly due to state fuel pricing policies”, the report said. The rating agency predicts that the leverage of these companies to remain high in 2016 and in 2017, based on their earlier forecast of lower operating cash flows and high capex. It also expect the 2016 performance of these NOCs to remain weak under the agency’s average Brent price assumption of $42 per barrel of oil equivalent. To counter the weaker earnings, the NOCs have started reducing costs, but there is very limited room for further opex cuts, the report said. The rating agency mentioned that the ability to sustain lower capex will vary among these issuers. For instance, Thailand’s PTT has limited capex flexibility because it has the weakest reserve replacement ratio (RRR), which is a metric used by investors to judge the operating performance of an oil & gas companies, among Asian investment-grade NOCs. Muralidharan R, Director, APAC Energy & Utilities, Fitch Ratings, in a report titled ‘South & South-East Asia National Oil Cos Dashboard’, said that the NOCs’ exploration and production businesses will remain weak on the back of lower realised prices, although production volumes will remain largely stable. Further, on the prices front, Muralidharan said, “Oil prices improved in 2Q16 from a year earlier, which boosted performance. However, we do not expect the price growth to be sustained in 2H16.” Commenting on the Indonesia’s Pertamina, Malaysia’s PETRONAS and Thailand’s PTT, the report said that the standalone credit profiles of these companies will benefit from their integrated businesses- cash generation from mid- and downstream operations offset the weaker upstream segments. Energy price reforms in India, Thailand and Malaysia have been largely positive for NOCs, but implications of reforms in Indonesia are mixed for Pertamina. Its downstream margins may narrow in 2H16, given government-directed changes to retail prices have not so far adjusted for higher crude oil prices”, Muralidharan said. However, the rating agency expects NOCs to continue to have low rating headroom due to weak earnings from low prices which will put pressure on their standalone financial profiles in 2016. Ryan Groy Jersey
ONGC’s Kutch offshore block to start gas production after a year
In what may help India’s plan to move towards a gas-based economy, state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd’s (ONGC) Kutch offshore project is expected to start gas production after a year, said A.K. Dwivedi, director-exploration. This comes at a time when production is declining from ONGC’s assets. Its crude oil output fell to 6.34 million ton (MT) in the June quarter compared with 6.48 MT last year. Similarly, its gas production was down 5.6% to 5.49 billion cu. meters (bcm). “ONGC made gas discovery in exploratory well GK-28#10 (GK-28-L) in GK-28 PML in Kutch Offshore of Western Offshore Basin. This is the first gas pool discovered in Deccan basalts in entire Western Offshore and may prove significant in terms of adding much needed critical gas volumes to GK-28/GK-42 development project,” ONGC said in a 11 February statement. “We are assessing the potential of this project, this shall continue for a year after which we intend to begin production which shall primarily consist of gas,” said Dwivedi. India has set a target of natural gas contributing 15% to India’s energy mix from the current level of 6.5%. This will involve the public sector unit ramping up its production. However, domestic production is falling. India’s domestic gas production fell by 4.7% to 31.14 bcm in financial year 2015-16 from 32.69 bcm a year ago. According to the 2015-16 annual report of ONGC, the public sector unit’s oil and gas production accounts for 70% of country’s hydrocarbon output. India has 26 sedimentary basins covering an area of 3.14 million sq. km. out of which 7 basins have established commercial productions in progress. India has total reserves of 763.476 MT of crude oil and 1,488.73 bcm of natural gas. “We are working on it (project) through cluster development and currently there are appraisal drillings going on,” added Dwivedi. Experts believe that given India’s target for clean fuel sources, natural gas production has to be exponentially increased. “To reach the target of 15%, current production has to be more than doubled. While it is early to judge the contribution of the project to India’s energy mix, it is surely a step in the right direction,” said R.S. Sharma, former chairman and managing director, ONGC. According to ONGC’s Perspective Plan 2030, it plans to produce 130 MT of oil and natural gas with 70 MT coming from its domestic production and the rest from its overseas subsidiary, ONGC Videsh Ltd. New England Patriots Jersey
RGU wins funds to draw up training programme for Indian oil and gas workers
The UK Government has awarded Robert Gordon University (RGU) funding to identify and close skills gaps in India’s energy sector. As part of the six month project, RGU will come up with a programme for training workers in India, a country which is looking to become more energy independent. Today’s announcement from RGU comes a week after Indian Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and his delegation visited the university. Also last week, RGU revealed plans to carry out a similar project in Mexico. The university secured funding for both initiatives from the government’s £1.3billion Prosperity Fund, which was set up to promote economic reform and development in “partner countries”. Indian authorities are currently planning to develop a deep water block in the Krishna-Godavari Basin, which lies off the country’s east coast. Professor Paul de Leeuw, director of RGU’s Oil and Gas Institute, said: “India has an ambitious and exciting agenda for its oil and gas industry, which will require significant investment in local skills development to ensure the country can meet its growing energy demand. “We are delighted to undertake this important project, which will help build the foundations upon which India can grow its skill base to fully exploit and benefit from its hydrocarbon reserves, strengthen its economy, drive innovation and provide increased employability prospects for its people.” Pat Elflein Jersey
India wants to add UAE, Saudi oil for strategic reserve
ndia is talking to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia to fill half of the 1.5 million tons (mt) of the Mangalore strategic storage, along with Iranian crude, Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas said on Wednesday. Dharmendra Pradhan told a news conference India is exploring two to three other models for sourcing oil to fill the remainder of the storage. During Saudi Arabia Energy Minister Kahlid A. Al-Falih’s visit to New Delhi in October, India plans to discuss the filling of the Mangalore strategic storage, and investments in refinery and petrochemical projects. Globally, most of the biggest crude oil consuming countries have a strategic storage capacity of at least 50 days, but India currently stands less than 10 days. In 2005, the Oil Ministry had set up Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Ltd (ISPRL) to build strategic storages in India. Under phase I of development, the company has built a total of 5.33 mt of storage capacity in three locations – Vizag (1.33 mt), Mangalore (1.5 mt) and Padur (2.5 mt). Only Vizag is currently operational. Kevin Faulk Womens Jersey
Cabinet approves 40% funding for gas pipeline project, city gas distribution in east India
In what may boost the infrastructure development of eastern India and help the country move towards a gas-based economy, the government has decided to provide a viability gap funding of 40% to GAIL (India) Ltd to construct the Jagdishpur-Haldia and Bokaro-Dhamra gas pipeline project. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Wednesday approved grant of around Rs.51.76 billion for the project which has an estimated cost of Rs.129.40 billion. The project will encompass five states—Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Odisha—and connect them to the national gas grid. “The gas pipeline that seemed a distant reality was taken up by the Cabinet today and the government has worked on its economic framework,” said minister for petroleum and natural gas Dharmendra Pradhan in New Delhi while addressing a press conference. He added that this is for the first time after a long gap that the government plans to invest in oil infrastructure. As part of the National Democratic Alliance government’s plans to move towards clean energy sources, Pradhan has set a target of natural gas contributing 15% to India’s energy mix. The country is also planning a natural gas hub for market pricing discovery, as reported by InfraCircle on 14 September. The 2,539km long pipeline will also cater to the three urea production units, which the government is reviving at present, and they will act as the anchor customers of gas, required in the production of fertilisers, from these pipelines. The units are at Barauni in Bihar, Sindri in Jharkhand and Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh. The Cabinet had on 13 July approved the revival of these units with an overall investment of Rs. 180 billion through the special purpose vehicle route. The pipeline will also service refineries at Haldia (West Bengal), Barauni and Paradip (Odisha). The ministry estimates that the pipeline, which is being constructed by GAIL under three phases, should be completed in about two-and-a-half years. Experts say the decision opens up the window for future viability funding in the pipeline circuit. “It portrays the positive attitude of the government. It surely is looking at expanding its pursuits,” said R.S. Butola, former head of Indian Oil Corp. Ltd. Pradhan also said that gas pipeline will also aid the food processing units in 25 industrial towns which require gas. “Though foreign direct investment (FDI) has been allowed in food processing business, lack of infrastructure and facilities was hurting,” added Pradhan. The government had allowed 100% FDI in marketing of food products produced and manufactured in India in the general budget of 2016-17. In a related decision, the CCEA also approved development of city gas distribution (CGD) pipeline in eight cities—Varanasi, Patna, Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Kolkata, Bhubaneshwar and Cuttack—which have a combined population of 12.5 million. Pradhan said that a total of Rs.190 billion will be spent on the CGD project. This shall help provide piped natural gas in east India which till date was available in other parts of the country, added Pradhan. As per the Petroleum Planning Analysis Cell, part of the ministry of petroleum and natural gas, India’s gas pipeline grid length is 16,250km. The country’s domestic gas production fell by 4.7% to 31.14 billion cu. metres (bcm) in financial year 2015-16 from 32.69 bcm in the previous year. Janoris Jenkins Womens Jersey