Egypt’s Sisi: Newly-discovered gas fields to save about $3.6 billion yearly
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said he expected that recently discovered gas fields would save Egypt about $3.6 billion yearly as they start coming into production, state-run newspapers reported on Tuesday night. Egypt wants to speed up gas production from newly-discovered fields, with an eye to halting imports by 2019. Once an energy exporter, it has become an importer after domestic output failed to keep pace with rising demand in recent years, but the discovery of the 850 billion-cubic metre Zohr field in 2015 is expected to change that. The gas fields Sisi referred to in an interview with heads of state-run newspapers included West delta and East delta and the second phase of Zohr field. Zohr field is expected to come into production by the end of the year and will save Egypt billions of dollars in hard currency that would otherwise be spent on imports. Egypt’s total gas production is 4.45 billion cubic feet per day. It aims to increase it to 5.35 billion cubic feet in 2017/18 and in 2018-19 to around 5.9 billion cubic feet per day. Doug Baldwin Authentic Jersey
Iraq in favour of extending any OPEC-led crude oil output cut – PM Abadi
Iraq is committed to reducing oil production to decrease a glut in the global market, and will support extending output cuts in line with any OPEC decision, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Tuesday. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries meets in Vienna on May 25 to consider whether to extend output cuts agreed in December last year between OPEC and 11 non-member countries, including Russia. “Iraq is with the continuation of a reduction of oil production of OPEC nations and we will push in that direction,” Abadi said in a news conference broadcast on state TV. Abadi did not specify for how long Iraq was willing to extend the current cut. The country’s oil minister said last week Iraq would support a six-month extension. Saudi Arabia and Russia, the world’s top two oil producers, agreed on Monday on the need to keep the current cut in place until March 2018. Non-OPEC member Kazakhstan however said on Monday it would struggle to join any new deal on the old terms, as its own output was set to jump. Oman said it fully supported the idea of a nine-month extension. OPEC wants to reduce global oil inventories to their five-year average but so far has struggled to do so. Stockpiles are hovering near record highs, partly because of rising production in the United States, which is not part of the existing deal. Shaquill Griffin Jersey
IIEST creates India’s first smart grid project
The Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology (IIEST) has successfully created the country’s first smart grid project, which will generate power from renewable sources of energy. The project will soon be inaugurated by President Pranab Mukherjee, IIEST Director Prof Ajoy Kumar Roy said. “The smart grid will be synchronised to generate power from solar, wind and vegetable waste resources, depending on the weather conditions and availability of waste products. It is the first of its kind in the country,” Roy said. “The power to be generated from solar energy depends on the availability of sunlight while wind energy will be produced during nor’wester and tropical storm. The power from biogas will be generated from vegetable waste collected from the campus kitchen and outside markets,” the professor said. “In the integrated project, by the Centre for Excellence for Green Energy Systems (CEGESS) of the institute, we are aiming to generate 32 kw of power from whichever resource available and synchronise the smart grid to take the power in the system for use. Thus we will not be depending on one resource,” Roy said. Roy added that the world will be faced with serious situation with the depletion of hydrocarbon source. “Since coal-hydrocarbon based energy technology leads to environmental degradation, the future lies in renewable energy based technology,” he said. The eminent scientist said, this being the age of smart technology, the institute needed to look forward. “The government planners and academicians should be involved in big way as technology is changing very very fast. “The next 50 years will witness unimaginable change in technology, which cannot be static,” he added. Deion Sanders Authentic Jersey
Towards “Power For All”
Provisioning of continuous and quality power supply to more than 250 million households (families) in the country is indeed a great challenge. Though electricity falls under the concurrent list of the Indian constitution, the Union Government has taken up this challenge as an opportunity to get connected with every citizen. Various developmental measures in the power sector have been undertaken during the last three years of the present government and ‘power for all’ is one of the most ambitious programs, which addresses the cause of both welfare and inclusiveness. The program stands as a joint effort of both union and state governments to provide uninterrupted power supply to every household by 2019. Undoubtedly, the ‘power for all’ program appears to be a big task. There are millions of households in our country who do not have access to electricity in their houses. In fact, as per the last household consumption expenditure survey conducted by national sample survey organization (nsso) in 2011-12, twenty percent of households (roughly 50 million) are reported not to have consumed electricity at all. Over the last five years since the last survey conducted, if we assume an improvement of five percentage point in the proportion of households consuming electricity that still leaves fifteen percent of total households of the country without electricity supply. In order to bring these households into network of electricity consumption by 2019, there is need to have a strategic move by the Union and State Governments. First, rural areas need more attention, effort and resources as the situation is worse there compared to the urban areas. Ninety five prevent of total un-electrified households in the country belong to rural sector according to the survey. It would be difficult to accept the fact that in the modern age, more than fifty five million households in the rural sector uses kerosene to light their houses. Getting electricity connection is still perceived to be a sign of affluence. The Deen Dayal Upadhya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) launched by the Union Government has a significant impact on increasing rural electrification as the scheme envisages provision of free electricity connection to the rural people from below poverty line. However, the state transmission and distribution utilities with the help of state governments need to be pro-active in solving the problems such as grid extension, high cost transmission, lower recovery rate etc. which stand as barriers on the way complete rural electrification. Second, some states need to be more pro-active and aggressive in the direction of achieving the target of power for all. It has been substantiated from the survey that distribution of un-electrified houses is uneven across states. Thirty six percent of total un-electrified houses in the country are reported from Uttar Pradesh followed by twenty seven percent in Bihar. Among others, West Bengal, Assam, Odisha etc. too have a disproportionate share in total number of un-electrified households. The issue of electrification in these states needs a big push from the Union and the concerned state governments in order to achieve the goal. Two major states, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar assume the centre of debate so far as lack of adequate electricity supply is concerned. Sixty four percent of total households in Bihar and forty four percent in Uttar Pradesh are reported not to have electricity connection. However, both the states have shown determination and have signed memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Union Government, though Uttar Pradesh signed little late i.e in Apri, 2017, just after the new government in the state took over to implement the program ‘power for all’. It is quite assuring to note that till today all the states and union territories have signed MOUs with the Union Government in the same cause. Third, a pro-poor tariff structure may help to sustain electricity supply to the households living below poverty line. Getting grid connectivity to the villages and providing free power connection to the families may not be adequate until the issue of affordable power supply is not properly addressed. It is found that forty percent of households not connected with electricity in India are rural poor, whose average monthly per-capita expenditure is less than Rs.816. Different state governments have their own cross-subsidy policies to address the issue of access to power supply for the rural poor. In Uttar Pradesh, a family in rural areas consuming up to 50 units of electricity a month has to pay Rs.200 while in Bihar it costs Rs.350. It should be noted that 37 percent of rural population in Uttar Pradesh and 41 percent in Bihar live below poverty line. A rural poor household in these two states would be forced to spend closer to 40 percent of its monthly per capita consumption expenditure only to light the house. These two states along with the others need to rationalize the tariff structure in order to sustain the power supply to the poor households. The distribution utilities in the states used to show differential response in supplying power to the rural sector, as tariff collection efficiency in the sector is relatively low. This inefficiency is found to be a demotivating factor for the distribution utilities to step up rural electrification. In order to achieve the success of ‘power for all’ the state governments need to direct the distribution utilities to be more active in the rural sector. A rational and pro-poor approach of the state governments along with the transmission and distribution utilities could help power to reach every household even before the specified time limit set by the Union Government. Mason Foster Authentic Jersey
Oil tankers to be fitted with high-tech locks
A long-awaited high-tech locking system will be installed on oil tankers this week, Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) said. The advanced security locking system is expected to prevent gasoline theft during transportation from India to Nepal. The state-owned oil monopoly moved to install the locks following a spate of thefts involving traders and corporation staff. Officials hope theft will be controlled as the security lock can be opened only at the loading and unloading points. NOC said it would be implementing the system in coordination with Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the sole oil supplier to Nepal. In the first phase, the locks will be installed on 220 oil tankers leaving IOC depots in India—100 tankers each at Barauni and Raxaul, and 20 tankers at Siliguri. NOC Spokesperson Sitaram Pokharel said the new locking system would be implemented as a pilot project. “In the beginning, the locks will be fitted to new tankers; later, old tankers will get them too,” he said. NOC said it would be almost impossible to tamper with the electromechanical device. Likewise, it is very difficult to make duplicates. The lock will have two keys, one will be kept at the depot in India and the other at the depot in Nepal. Pokharel said NOC was planning to make a master key that will be kept at IOC’s regional offices. “If a tanker operator loses the key, a fine will be charged.” Pokharel said tanker owners would have to install the new lock while transferring ownership of their vehicles or buying new ones. Currently, 1,552 tankers are engaged in transporting fuel from India to Nepal. NOC has targeted to increase the number to 2,300 soon. IOC will be providing the high-tech locks for all tankers used to carry oil to Nepal. Gasoline dealers doubt the new locking system will work. “This is not the first time that NOC has attempted to implement a locking system,” said Lilendra Prasad Pradhan, president of the Nepal Petroleum Dealers’ Association. He said the system wouldn’t last long because of NOC’s weak administration. Jason Kasdorf Authentic Jersey
Global oil market rebalancing speeds up, belied by inventories – IEA
The global oil market is rebalancing and the pace at which supply and demand are falling into line is picking up, even if inventories still fail to reflect the impact of OPEC supply cuts, the International Energy Agency said on Tuesday. In its monthly report, the IEA kept its global demand growth forecast for 2017 unchanged at 1.3 million barrels per day (bpd), because of slowdowns in previously robust consumer countries such as the United States, Germany and Turkey. Commercial inventories fell for a second straight month in March, by 32.9 million barrels to 3.025 billion barrels. But for the first quarter as a whole, stocks in industrialised countries rose by 24.1 million barrels and the IEA said preliminary data suggested inventories increased again in April. “It has taken some time for stocks to reflect lower supply when volumes produced before output cuts by OPEC and 11 non-OPEC countries took effect are still being absorbed by the market,” the Paris-based IEA said. In the first quarter of 2017, “we might not have seen a resounding return to deficits but this report confirms our recent message that rebalancing is essentially here and, in the short term at least, is accelerating”. Global oil supply fell by 140,000 bpd in April to 96.17 million bpd, led by declines in nations outside the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, such as Canada. But with strong production increases in the United States, Brazil and Kazakhstan, the IEA said non-OPEC output would grow by 600,000 bpd this year. Paul Kariya Authentic Jersey
Another plume in NRL’s beret
Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) has bagged the prestigious National Technology Award-2017 instituted by the Technology Development Board under the Centre’s Department of Science and Technology for commercialisation of wax de-oiling technology developed jointly in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Petroleum and Engineers India Limited. The award, comprising of Rs 2.5 million and a trophy, was presented by President Pranab Mukherjee to NRL MD P Padmanabhan and NRL Director (Finance) SK Barua in the presence of Union Science and Technology Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan at a function organised to celebrate the 19th National Technology Day at the Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi recently, an NRL statement said. The 50,000-MT NRL Wax Plant commissioned in March 2015 at a cost of Rs 6.76 billion is the country’s largest wax-producing unit leveraging on the inherent properties of wax-rich crude oil from the oil fields of Assam. Manti Te’o Jersey