ONGC’s KG basin gas field all set to touch peak in July
State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp expects to scale peak output of about 5 million standard cubic meters per day from its Vashishta gas field in KG basin by July this year. Vashishta and S1 gas fields, located in the Krishna- Godavari (KG) Offshore Basin off the east coast of India, began operations in September last year. “We are producing 1.1 million standard cubic meters per day from the fields currently and hope to reach about 5 mmscmd by July,” a senior company official said. The fields were developed under a greenfield deepwater development project at an investment of $751.65 million. The Vashishta field is estimated to produce 9.56 billion cubic metres (bcm) over a period of nine years with peak production reaching 3.55 million metric standard cubic metres a day (mmscmd) during the first five years. The S1 field is expected to deliver 6.22 bcm over a period of eight years with a peak production of 2.2 mmscmd for the first five years. As part of the Vashishta and S1 field development, ONGC is drilling four wells and shipping the gas from them through a sub-sea pipeline to an onshore terminal at Odalarevu in Andhra Pradesh, he said. The Vashishta field lies in water depths varying between 500 meters and 700 meters and about between 31-35 km from the Amalapuram coast. The S1 field is located in water depths of between 250 meters and 600 meters, and approximately between 26k-29 km from the Amalapuram coast. While the Vashishta field is a free gas field with estimated reserves of 12.92 bcm, the S1 field lies to the east of G-1 field and is a free gas field with estimated reserves of 10.37 bcm. The official said Vashishta is the first field in the country to get the premium price of gas. In March last year, the government had allowed higher price for new gas production from difficulties areas like deep sea, ultra deepwater and high pressure, high temperature areas. When ONGC started production the premium price was $6.61 per million British thermal unit as against a cap price of $3.06 per mmBut for regular fields. “We got $6.61 per mmBtu for about a month,” he said. The premium price for period between October 2016 and March 2017 was cut to $5.3 per mmBtu based on benchmark rates in gas surplus economies. The rate for regular gas price also declined to $2.50 per mmBtu. The official said the gas was sold to state gas utility GAIL. “We have pricing and marketing freedom and we will auction the incremental production. Whosoever pays us the best price, subject to the government prescribed ceiling, will get the gas,” he added. Govt lets Cairn India drill 64 KG Basin exploratory, appraisal wells A committee under the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change has given a green signal to Cairn India for undertaking drilling works of 64 exploratory and appraisal wells in KG-OSN-2009/3 block in KG basin at Prakasam and Guntur districts of Andhra Pradesh. The Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) while according to environmental clearance set a few conditions along with other specific and general environmental conditions relevant to the project proposal. After examining the facts and detailed deliberations the committee decided to recommend the proposal for grant of environmental clearance subject to compliance of following conditions along with other specific and general environmental conditions relevant to the project proposal, the EAC said in the minutes of the meeting held recently. Cairn India Limited has proposed for drilling of 55 exploratory and 11 appraisal wells in KG-OSN-2009/3 block in Offshore KG Basin. The offshore block in the Bay of Bengal along the coast of Andhra Pradesh is spread over an area of about 1988 km. The block covers partly the offshore areas of Prakasam and Guntur districts. Cairn India had earlier said it declared force majeure of two of its oil and gas blocks including KG-OSN-2009/3 due to the objections raised by the Ministry of Defence for taking up exploratory works. However, the company, in 2014, got necessary clearance from the Ministries concerned. The block was awarded to Cairn India on 30 June 2010 as part of the NELP-VIII round for exploration of hydrocarbons and production. The company has 100 per cent stake in the Block, according to the last year s annual report. Exploratory/Appraisal drilling is carried out in the identified sub-surface structures to find out if there is presence of hydrocarbons in commercially exploitable quantities, an expert in oil and gas filed said. Denver Broncos Jersey
Govt offers rebate for off-campus solar panels
For hotels and industries that have been violating the solar norms claiming installation of rooftop solar power systems is next to impossible in already-built buildings, the state government has come up with an alternative. These industries can now take on lease inexpensive land anywhere in the state and install ground-mounted solar power systems. And the power generated will be supplied to the power grid of the discom. Officials of the renewable energy department said on Tuesday the option is available only to commercial customers for now. “A hotel chain in Gurgaon has already set up a ground-mounted solar power system in a rural area. The power generated will be supplied to the grid directly,” Ankur Gupta, additional chief secretary of the department, told TOI. The discom will calculate the price for the power supplied to the grid vis-a-vis the consumption by the hotel, if it opts for net metering. Gupta said the department is also in talks with Faridabad Industrial Association for a similar project, where a group of industries will set up solar plants in rural areas where land is inexpensive. The new solar power policy 2016 mandates every new residential building more than 500 sq yards to have a photovoltaic solar power panel. The same policy also mandates all private hospitals and nursing homes, industrial establishments, commercial establishments, malls, hotels, banquets and tourism complexes with connected load of more than 50 KW to install solar power panels. Additionally, all private educational institutes, schools, colleges, hostels and universities with a connected load of 30 KW and above will also have to install the photovoltaic solar power panels, along with all government buildings, offices, colleges and universities under the policy. But TOI had earlier reported ambiguity over the policy has affected its implementation and nullified the impact. The lack of implementation is due to the delay in drafting of compliance provisions by departments concerned (Huda, HSIIDC, urban local bodies and DTCP) specifying procedure, penal action and amount of penalty for non-compliance. Darian Thompson Jersey
Centre agrees to supply LNG to households in Yanam: Pondy CM
Chief Minister V Narayanasamy today said the Centre has acceded to the Puducherry government’s plea to supply cooking gas to every household through pipelines in Yanam region, an enclave of Puducherry in Andhra Pradesh. The announcement was made at the inauguration of the month-long ‘Oil and Gas conservation mass awareness programme’ organised by Petroleum Conservation Research Association (PCRA) here today. Narayanasamy said the natural gas available in the Godavari basin off the coast of Kakinada would be used for supply of Liquefied natural gas (LNG) to every house hold in Yanam region. “Necessary work to get infrastructures in place would begin soon,” he said adding supply of LNG through pipelines was also being contemplated for Karaikal and Puducherry regions. A terminal would come up in Karaikal as per the assurance given by the Ministry for Petroleum and Natural gas. Narayansamy also noted that the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) had under its corporate social responsibility programme installed a dialysis equipment in the Indira Gandhi Government Medical college hospital here. The territorial government had also decided to show considerable concessions in the sales tax for sale of the fuel by the IOC for the flights that would be operating soon from Puducherry airport, he said. Welfare Minister M Kandasamy and Parliamentary Secretary to Chief Minister K Lakshminarayanan were among those who spoke. Students from various institutions took a pledge to conserve energy. Mark Gastineau Womens Jersey
RIL writes down $6 billion for New Accounting Standards
Reliance Industries (RIL) has written down almost $6 billion (Rs 39,570 crore) of investments in its Krishna Godavari Basin D6 block and US shale gas assets attributing it to change in accounting policy. In the past, the billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led company had to write down investments in the KGD6 block on account of steep declines in output and also in its shale gas assets in the US as prices plummeted. But the write-down reported by the company is believed to be significantly higher in the December quarter due to its transition from Indian Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (IGAAP) to Indian Accounting Standards (Ind-AS). RIL said that while IGAAP recognises two methods of accounting for oil and gas activities, namely, full cost method and successful efforts method, the new method under Ind-AS only recognises the successful efforts method which resulted in the huge write-down. “RIL and its subsidiaries have adopted Ind-AS with effect from April 1, 2016 pursuant to the notification issued by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. The impact of Rs 39,570 crore is entirely on account of change in accounting policy from full cost method to successful efforts method (SEM),” an RIL spokesperson said in response to an ET query . The write-down constitutes Rs 20,114 crore on domestic oil and gas assets, mainly the KG-D6 fields. “Major differences impacting such change are in the areas of expenditure on surrendered blocks, unproved wells, abandoned wells and expired leases and licences and seismic cost which has been expensed under SEM; and depletion on producing property is calculated using Rs Proved Developed Reserve, as against Rs Proved Reserve’ in full cost method,“ the company explained. RIL’s upstream business has been a drag on the company as it remains a “low volume-low price“ business. The company’s flagging KG-D6 field produced 0.26 barrels of crude oil and 24.4 billion cubic feet of natural gas in the third quarter of FY17, a reduction of almost 30% year-on-year. Its shale gas production in the US also declined 9% sequentially. Realisations, though, witnessed some improvement. In a result review report, JM Financials said, “We roll forward to December 2017 to arrive at a target price of Rs 1,155 as we believe long-term investments into upgrading the refining complex and increasing the petrochemicals capacity based on refinery flue gases are long-term positives; while in the near-term the stock performance will depend on news flow on telecom.“ RIL’s consolidated net profit rose 3.6% to Rs 7,506 crore in the December quarter driven by petrochemicals business. Its consolidated turnover grew 16% to Rs 84,189 crore, aided by a growth in other income that rose due to profit from the sale of investments in fixed asset instruments. Emmanuel Sanders Womens Jersey
India, China to fuel demand for natural resources, says Saudi energy minister
India is set to play a bigger role in shaping the energy policies of the Middle East due to its growing hunger for oil. Saudi energy minister Khalid al-Falih, during the 2017 Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week being held at Abu Dhabi in UAE, said fossil fuels cannot be just wished away since rising car ownership in India and China will fuel the demand for natural resources. Although al-Falih, who is also the chairman of Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s petroleum and natural gas giant, pledged $30-50 billion investment by Saudi Arabia in renewable energy by 2023, he appeared bullish on oil and gas. “We are going to need clean oil and gas for generations to come,” he said. “We have seen bio fuels create more pollution than fossil fuel. Poor people using bio fuels are more likely to pollute than people who have access to clean oil and gas.” Passenger car ownership in India is estimated to grow by 775% over the next 24 years, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). Phil Dawson Womens Jersey