India’s eighth sedimentary basin to go live in 2 years
The state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) will open up India’s eighth sedimentary basin — the first in over three decades — for oil and gas production in two years, Chairman Dinesh K Sarraf said today. ONGC, which laid open for commercial production six out of India’s seven producing basins, has made a significant natural gas discovery in the Gulf of Kutch off India’s west coast, which it plans to bring to production in two years. “This will be the eighth-producing basin in India,” he told reporters on the margins of an industry event here. India has 26 sedimentary basins, of which only seven have commercial production of oil and gas. Except for the Assam shelf, ONGC opened up for commercial production all the other six basins, including Cambay, Mumbai Offshore, Rajasthan, Krishna Godavari, Cauvery and Assam-Arakan Fold Belt. Declining to give details, he said the discovery made in the Gulf of Kutch is in shallow waters, but cannot be tied to either the production facilities in Mumbai High fields or Hazira and may require a new landfall point. The company, the chairman, said had had a record number of oil and gas discoveries in the fiscal year to March 31. “In all, we had 23 discoveries,” he said. ONGC has continued to spend on exploration and development of discovered reserves despite the worldwide trend of putting on hold future investment in view of low oil prices. The International Energy Agency (IEA) yesterday stated that global oil discoveries fell to a record low in 2016 as companies continued to cut spending and conventional oil projects sanctioned were at the lowest level in more than 70 years. “We made 35 per cent more discoveries in 2016-17 as compared to 17 we made in 2015-16,” he pointed out. Of the 23 new discoveries, 12 are new prospects — a potential trap which may contain hydrocarbons while 11 are new pools — a geological term for subsurface hydrocarbon accumulation. As many as 13 new discoveries were made in onland and 10 in offshore wells. “A total of 100 exploratory wells were drilled as compared to 92 wells drilled in the previous year 2015-16. Of these, 37 wells proved hydrocarbon bearing registering success ratio of 37 per cent,” he said. He added that the accretion of in-place hydrocarbons was 203.24 million tonnes of oil and oil equivalent gas and the ultimate reserve accretion was 64.32 mt. The reserve replacement ratio (RRR) for the year has been 1.49. J.R. Sweezy Authentic Jersey
SWISS to abolish two-persons-in-the-cockpit rule framed after suicidal crash
Is it safe to have just one crew member in the cockpit? It was not thought so after a suicidal Germanwings pilot locked the captain out and deliberately crashed the plane into a mountain, killing all 150 people on board in 2015. As a precautionary measure after the crash, two-persons-in-the-cockpit rule was recommended by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and adopted by several airlines. The rule requires two crew members to be present in the cockpit all the time. When one goes out, he has to be replaced by a third member. Two years later, Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) has decided to abolish this rule, with effect from May 1. A press release by the airline says that the the action follows an extensive safety and security review which has concluded that the rule does not enhance flight safety. The action is being taken following a structured safety, security and risk analysis that has been conducted by the carrier and coordinated with similar risk assessments by its fellow Lufthansa Group airlines, the release says. These analyses have concluded that the requirement of having two crew members in the cockpit at all times during a flight does not enhance safety, and actually introduces additional risks to daily operations in flight safety terms (such as the fact that the rule results in more and longer openings of the cockpit door). The European Aviation Safety Agency had revised its recommendation in 2016, offering airlines the option of abolishing the two-persons-in-the-cockpit rule provided they met the relevant further criteria.
Punjab, Haryana to face shortfall of cheapest BBMB power in summers
With the cheapest power from Bhakra Nangal and Beas projects all set to fall in the first quarter due to depleted level of water at reservoirs, the power utilities in Punjab and Haryana will have to spend extra buck to maintain adequate supply. Due to less rains in the catchment area, the prevailing water level at Bhakra reservoir (1200MW) and Pong (360MW) is 35 per cent and 41 per cent respectively below normal (average of last 10 years) levels. The BBMB is primarily an irrigation project and power is a by-product allocated supplied at around paise 33 per unit to beneficiary states. Punjab gets lion’s share of 51.8 per cent (1161 MW) of the total installed capacity whereas Haryana gets 37 per cent share. The projects had generated 11819 million units in 2016-17 almost 10.5 per cent lower than the previous year due to less rainfall in the catchment area. The BBMB projects have an installed capacity of 2866 MW. “Power from other sources will be arranged to cover up the shortfall and it will definitely cost more than the supply from BBMB,” a senior official of Haryana Power Generation Corporation Limited said. The dip in hydro power generation is likely to affect Punjab State Power Corporation Limited more as it also gets 1041 MW of hydro power from its share and PPAs in other projects in the North. Out of 91 main water reservoirs in the country 37 reservoirs have hydropower benefit with installed capacity of more than 60 MW. This year the water levels at such reservoirs is better than the last year and last 10 years in states of Gujarat, Odissa, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh. In states of Maharashtra, Uttrakhand, Kerela and Tamil Nadu the water level in the reservoirs having hydro generation capacity is less than normal (average of last 10 years) but better than the last year. Robert Newhouse Authentic Jersey
Wind power capacity addition outpaced predictions last year: ICRA
Capacity addition in the wind energy sector was much better than predicted by ICRA last year. This was largely attributable to a bunching up of commissioning in March 2017. This in turn was the result of removal of generation based incentive (GBI) benefit and reduction in accelerated depreciation (AD) benefit with effect from April 1, 2017. These apart, independent power producers were trying to utilise the current feed in tariff regimes in states where it existed – the apprehension being that in future, tariff based bidding, as exemplified by the award of projects by Solar Energy Corporation Ltd in February 2017, could largely replace feed-in tariff regime. ICRA has gathered from industry sources that distribution utilities in states like Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Gujarat are evaluating competitive bidding mechanism for awarding wind power projects. The wind power capacity addition during FY2017 stood at 5.4 GW, increasing by 58% over the capacity addition of 3.4 GW achieved in FY2016. The solar power capacity addition stood at 5.5 GW in FY2017, reporting a significant jump of 83% as against the capacity addition of 3.0 GW in FY2016. Despite the record capacity addition in the wind segment, the annual capacity addition in the solar power segment exceeded the wind power segment for the first time, supported by the strong policy support and also the improved cost competitiveness of solar power against conventional as well as other renewable sources, including wind. Nevertheless, the renewable energy sector reported a record capacity addition of over 11 GW in FY2017, an increase of around 60% over 7.1 GW reported in FY2016. Large capacity additions in FY2017 in the wind power segment was mainly seen in the states of Andhra Pradesh (2190 MW), Gujarat (1275 MW) and Karnataka (882 MW), while large capacity addition in FY2017 in the solar power segment was mainly seen in the states of Andhra Pradesh (1294 MW), Karnataka (882 MW) and Telangana (759 MW). Marcus Cannon Authentic Jersey
Solar installation to touch 10 Gigawatt as module prices fall further: Mercom
Solar installations in India is expected to reach approximately 10 GW as it becomes one of the most important solar markets in the world, after China and the United States, Mercom India has forecast. Fuelled by slowdown in China’s demand the industry is expecting module prices to decline slightly in the second quarter and a more pronounced fall in the second half of the year. Nevertheless, current installed capacity of domestic cells and modules is estimated at 3 GW and 8.4 GW respectively while operational capacity of solar cells and modules is 1.5 GW and 6.6 GW respectively. The Indian solar sector is seeing strong activity with cumulative installations reaching approximately 12.8 GW at the end of Q1 2017. In fact, utility-scale projects account for about 12 GW and rooftop installations account for almost 850 MW of the installed capacity. Pipeline for utility-scale projects that are under development is currently at about 12.6 GW and there are approximately 6.1 GW of tenders pending auction. In fact, large-scale projects under the National Solar Policy (NSM or JNNSM) lead in installations followed by states like Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Telangana and Karnataka. In terms of pipeline, most of the under development and tendered projects are coming up under the NSM program in various phases and batches, followed by projects under state policies led by Telangana, Karnataka, and Madhya Pradesh. On the policy front, so far, 2.6 GW of solar projects have been commissioned under various phases. These projects are spread across states including Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh. SECI targets 1,000 mw grid connected projects under JNNSM – Phase II Batch 5 for public sector undertakings and government organizations’ self-use or third-party sale or merchant sale. Meanwhile, Chinese module prices in India have continued to slide with average selling prices coming to Rs 20.68 per watt in the first quarter of 2017, a drop of an 11 per cent from Rs 23.27 per watt in Q4 2016. Chinese module prices have now fallen by about 33 percent in the last 12 months, enabling the recent low bids of Rs 3.30 per unit and Rs 3.15 per unit in Kadapa. Matt Dumba Authentic Jersey
Ageing oilfields drag down India’s crude output for fifth straight year
India’s crude oil production fell for the fifth straight year in 2016-17 as output continued to slide at ageing oilfields. Output fell 2.5% from the previous fiscal to 36 million metric tonnes as production at the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation’s Mumbai High field and Cairn India’s fields in Rajasthan slipped, according to Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC), an arm of the oil ministry. “The delay in deployment of Sagar Samrat rig to mobile offshore production unit as well as development of western periphery of Mumbai High (MH) South field has also affected the crude production for ONGC,” PPAC said in its monthly note. “The major decline was observed in Rajasthan’s fields due to closure of a few high water cut wells in Mangala field and poor reservoir performance of Bhagyam wells.” Meanwhile, a rapidly expanding economy pushed up country’s oil demand 5% in 2016-17. Though lower than 11% demand growth witnessed in 2015-16, increased consumption, along with falling output, prompted a 5.2% jump in the import of crude to 213 million metric tonnes worth $70 billion during the fiscal. This increased India’s import dependence to 82% of its requirement in 2016-17 from 81% in the previous year. The government is aiming to bring down import dependence to 67% by 2022 by raising local output and increasing use of biofuel in transportation, a bid to reduce dependence on overseas energy sources and save on valuable foreign exchange. Domestic natural gas production fell 1% to 30.8 billion cubic meters in 2016-17 while consumption went up 6%. Import of liquefied natural gas (LNG), accounting for 45% of total domestic consumption, rose 15% during the year. Indian state firms’ production from overseas fields, however, rose sharply to 15.9 million tonnes of oil equivalent (mtoe) in 2016-17 from 9.7 mtoe in the previous year, driven mainly by stake purchases in Russia’s Vankor field. ONGC Videsh’s production jumped 40% to 12.5 mtoe. It is expected to go up another 15% in the current fiscal. India imported 22% more petroleum products in 2016-17, mainly due to increase in petcoke import by the private sector. The country exported 7% more petroleum products, with private sector accounting for 80% of total export. Pierre Desir Authentic Jersey
State-owned ONGC makes 23 oil and gas discoveries last financial year
State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) made 23 oil and gas discoveries in the fiscal year ended March 31 as a record number of wells drilled helped it uncover new reserves. While the International Energy Agency (IEA) stated that global oil discoveries fell to a record low in 2016 as companies continued to cut spending and conventional oil projects sanctioned were at the lowest level in more than 70 years, ONGC stepped up its exploratory efforts to augment new production. “FY 2016-17 has been one of the most successful years of the last decade in exploring oil and gas with more thrust in increased exploration activities during the year,” a top company official said. Its exploratory efforts yielded 23 new discoveries, a 35 per cent jump over 17 finds made in 2015-16 fiscal. Of the 23 new discoveries, 12 are new prospects — a potential trap which may contain hydrocarbons, while 11 are new pools — a geological term for subsurface hydrocarbon accumulation. As many as 13 new discoveries were made in onland and 10 in offshore wells. “A total of 100 exploratory wells were drilled which is higher by 9 per cent as compared to 92 wells drilled in the previous year 2015-16. Of these, 37 wells proved hydrocarbon bearing registering success ratio of 37 per cent,” he said. IEA in a report today said oil discoveries declined to 2.4 billion barrels in 2016, compared with an average of 9 billion barrels per year over the past 15 years. Also, the number of projects that received a final investment decision dropped to the lowest level since the 1940s. “This sharp slowdown in activity in the conventional oil sector was the result of reduced investment spending driven by low oil prices,” IEA said. However, ONGC continued to spend more to help achieve Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s target of reducing import dependence by 10 per cent by 2022. The official said the accretion of in place hydrocarbons was 203.24 million tons of oil and oil equivalent gas and the ultimate reserve accretion was 64.32 million tons. Reserve Replacement Ratio (RRR) for the year has been 1.49. The discoveries include two in Kutch and Saurashtra basin, off Gujarat coast. Also, SRI-1 discovery in the NELP block KG-OSN-2009/2 in KG basin has established huge potential for syn-rift/deeper play in east coast shallow water. Jabera-4 discovery established hydrocarbons for the first time in Vindhyan Basin and has given impetus for putting Vindhyan basin on hydrocarbon map of India, he said. The official said ONGC is working on early monetisation of new discoveries. Nine onland discoveries made during the year have been monetised and put on production with average oil rate of 445 cubic meters per day and gas rate of 220,000 cubic meters a day. The discoveries have cumulatively produced 38,809 tons of oil and 23.78 million standard cubic meters of gas during the year. Chris Scott Womens Jersey
12 new expressways to be constructed: Nitin Gadkari
At least a dozen new expressways would be constructed in the coming year to connect various states in the country, of which three will be started in 2017, it was announced here Friday. “Eastern Peripheral Highway is just the beginning. We will make 12 such express highways. Three of such highways will be started in 2017 itself,” the Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari said. Gadkari, who was here to review the ongoing construction of 135 km long Eastern Peripheral Highway, said: “This is the country’s first access control highway from both sides of the road. We are trying to make under passes through such roads and avoid any hindrance.” The Eastern Peripheral Expressway is expected to be thrown open by August 2017 and the two roads will divert around 2 lakh vehicles passing through the national capital to reduce Delhi’s traffic congestion by 50 per cent beside reducing the air pollution. Gadkari was accompanied by National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) Chairperson Yudhvir Singh Malik and Bagpat parliamentarian Satpal Singh. One lakh cement bags were being used per day for the road which will be a control access highway, he said. “Through this highway the nearby areas and the cost of the land is estimated to rise three times,” said Gadkari. He said the government was also planning to plant trees on the sides of the road to make it a green highway. The construction of the highway is likely to get over by August. The project built by five major construction firms on divided stretches was started after Supreme Court’s Directive in 2006 to construct a ring road for by passing non-Delhi bound vehicles moving between Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. Initially the project was to take 2.5 years. But following the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s directive the project is being constructed within 400 days. The Eastern Peripheral Expressway will become India’s first 135 km green road to be lit entirely by solar panels and will have advanced traffic system. The project which commenced in May, 2016 will consume a million tones flash from National Thermal Power Corporation’s various plants to utilize waste and minimize pollution. The expressway passes through Sonipat, Bagpat, Ghaziabad, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Faridabad, and Palwal in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. The proposed alignment crosses the Yamuna at Khurrampur/Khata in Uttar Pradesh and Faizpur Khadar in Haryana and crosses the river Hindon. Deatrich Wise Jr Womens Jersey