BHEL commissions 1,980 Mw super-critical thermal power plant in UP
Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL), the country’s largest power equipment manufacturer, today announced it has commissioned the third 660 Megawatt (Mw) unit of the 1,980 Mw Prayagraj Super Thermal Power Project (PSTPP) in Uttar Pradesh, successfully completing the execution of the plant in Allahabad. The first two units of the project, commissioned earlier by BHEL, are already under commercial operation. Located in Bara tehsil in Allahabad, the project is owned by Prayagraj Power Generation Company Limited (PPGCL), a subsidiary company of Jaiprakash Power Ventures Limited. BHEL’s scope of work in the project included design, engineering, manufacture, supply, erection and commissioning of the Boiler and Turbine-Generator (BTG) package. The key equipment for the project was manufactured by BHEL at its Haridwar, Trichy, Hyderabad, Ranipet and Bengaluru works while the construction of the plant was undertaken by the company’s Power Sector-Northern Region unit. “Notably, in the last 17 months, six supercritical sets have been commissioned in Uttar Pradesh, all of which have been installed by BHEL,” the company said in a statement today. It added that over 70 per cent of Uttar Pradesh’s power generation capacity — aggregating to more than 17,000 Mw — has been supplied by BHEL. The company has commissioned 4,960 Mw of projects in the state in the last two years. Jordan Poyer Womens Jersey
GAIL India to invest Rs 1,000 crore to help Dabhol LNG terminal operate all year
GAIL India will invest.Rs 1,000 crore on the liquified natural gas terminal at the Ratnagiri Gas and Power Private (RGPPL) to make it an ‘all-weather’ port by 2019, said BC Tripathi, chairman, GAIL. RGPPL, the second avatar of the troubled Dabhol power project, is in the process of demerging the power plant and the LNG terminal to make the project financially more viable as the project continues to struggle to keep afloat even after a decade since banks and public sector units stepped in to revive it. “We will hold over 70% in the demerged LNG terminal and our aim would be to convert it into an all-weather port so that we can run it at full capacity,” Tripathi said. After the original promoter of the project Enron declared bankruptcy in 2001, it was taken over for revival by RGPPL, backed by the government, in 2005. GAIL and NTPC are the biggest shareholders with 25.1% each, while the government of Maharashtra owns 13.51% and lenders have a 35.47% stake. Post the demerger, GAIL would be a majority stakeholder in the LNG terminal, while NTPC would lead the power project that would run a 500 mw unit. “We hope to give the contract for the breakwater project and expect it to be operational by monsoon in 2019,” said Tripathi. A breakwater is an offshore structure built to break the intensity of the waves so that the terminal can work all year. Right now, this terminal cannot operate for almost five months between June and September since the choppy sea poses risks to the ships. The company had hoped to award the project by October last year but it has been delayed. The demerger of the power plant and the LNG regasification unit has been delayed since lenders such as Power Finance Corp and LIC had put forth conditions. The power plant is in pact to supply 500 mw to the Indian Railways. Ryan Shazier Jersey
BHP hires Barclays to divest U.S. shale gas assets – sources
BHP has hired Barclays to divest its U.S. Fayetteville shale gas assets as the miner seeks to fend off an attack by activist funds, two sources close to the matter said on Tuesday. BHP said last month the gas-rich Fayetteville field in Arkansas was under review and that it was “considering all options, including divestment”. BHP declined to comment and Barclays was not immediately available for a comment. The miner had tried to sell the business more than two years ago, but the attempt was shelved in February 2015, when it said it planned to “maximise value” of the assets. The revived sale comes as activist investor Elliott Advisors, which has built up a 4.1 percent stake in BHP’s London-listed arm, urged for changes to boost shareholder value. The sale is expected to draw interest from smaller mining companies already operating in the region, the sources said. The Fayetteville assets, which BHP acquired for $4.75 billion in 2011, had a book value of $919 million at the end of 2016, according to the company’s annual accounts. The miner had to write down the assets by $2.8 billion in 2012 due to lower gas prices. Earlier this month, Elliott called for BHP to run an independent review of its petroleum division, valued at more than $20 billion, after asking to spin off the U.S. oil and gas assets. BHP has rejected the call by Elliott, which was later joined by Australian boutique manager Tribeca Partners. The mining company denied any link between the activists’ move and prospects for Fayetteville including divestment, and said the move was instead part of an ongoing review. Within the petroleum business, BHP has long made it clear it intends to focus on liquid products in the United States, a more lucrative business than dry gas. In February, it agreed to spend $2.2 billion to fund its share of investment for the second phase of the Mad Dog oilfield in the Gulf of Mexico. Ryan Fitzpatrick Jersey
In a first, India’s petroleum regulator to use real-time data monitoring tech to assess output from fields
In a first of its kind move, India’s upstream petroleum regulator, the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH), will use the all new real-time data monitoring technology to assess output from all the contract areas recently awarded under the Discovered Small Field (DSF) auctions. Real-time data collection and monitoring is being used by many industry players and will help the government decide the quantum of its share as the fields under DSF were awarded based on the new revenue-sharing model prevalent under Hydrocarbon Exploration Licensing Policy (HELP), a senior DGH official told ETEnergyWorld. “It is a common practice among many industry players. We are working on creating a real-time petroleum measurement data access system which will be live soon. It is a support mechanism as the auctions were under revenue-sharing contract. As the focus is will be on production, such a support system is necessary,” the official said. After the award of contracts under DSF, the regulator had held workshops for the winning bidders in order to de-brief the contractors, primarily new entrants, about the various aspects of the DSF policy and newly introduced revenue sharing model. These meetings included workshops on financing matters, essential certificates and statutory clearances, Field Development Programme specifications and the taxation regime for the Exploration and Production sector. The Model Revenue Sharing Contract (MRSC) policy provides flexibility to DGH to issue directions to the contractor on the methodology of measurement, the equipment used for the measurement and the points of measurement of petroleum. In order to create proper infrastructure to promote real-time monitoring, the upstream regulator will announce measurement guidelines to be adhered by the contractors. The operator will have to declare the details of pressure, temperature and flow transmitter in the FDP. The operator will have to facilitate data transfer from all field locations to the central data receiving stations. The oil ministry had launched the first round of DSF in May 2016 under a new liberalized policy under which 46 contract areas consisting 67 fields spread across nine sedimentary basins were auctioned. The auctions had witnessed 134 e-bids for 34 contact areas of the 46 offered. Later, 22 companies were awarded 31 contract areas of which 15 companies were new entrants with no prior experience in the sector. The ministry had pegged the indicative gross revenue over the economic life of these fields at Rs 464 billion. Sheldon Richardson Jersey
Shell, Engie exit Kakinada LNG project
Royal Dutch Shell, Europe’s largest oil firm, and French energy major Engie have exited a floating LNG import terminal project at Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh over concerns about demand for imported gas in India. Post exit of Shell and Engie (previously known as GDF Suez), state-owned gas utility GAIL India Ltd is negotiating with Andhra Pradesh government on possible structure of the project, GAIL Chairman and Managing Director B C Tripathi said. “Shell and GDF (now known as Engie) are no longer part of the project,” he told reporters here. The two firms had wanted GAIL to guarantee a minimum sale of imported liquefied natural gas (LNG) before investment decision could be taken. However, with power plants not willing to buy imported gas, such a guarantee never came. Tripathi did not put a timeline for completion of building the floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) off the Kakinada coast. “The project is now between Andhra Pradesh government and GAIL and we are discussing its structure,” he said. Way back in 2011, GAIL and Shell had conceived plans to set up a floating LNG receipt facility (FSRU) in Bay of Bengal for import OF super-cooled natural gas (LNG) in ships and then piping it to onshore. Shell had teamed up with billionaire Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group’s Reliance Power and Kakinada Sea Ports Ltd (KSPL), which operates the Kakinada deep water port in Andhra Pradesh, for setting up an FSRU with a capacity of up to 5 million tons per annum (mtpa), expandable to 10-plus mtpa to “meet the surging demand for gas in the region.” However, Reliance Power exited the project in 2014 and Shell decided to join the GAIL-led project. On January 15, 2015, Shell, GDF Suez and Andhra Pradesh Gas Distribution Corp (APGDC) — a joint venture of GAIL and Andhra Pradesh government, signed an agreement for 3.5-5 mtpa FSRU. Shell and GDF took 26 per cent stake each while ADGDC held the remaining 48 per cent. Also, another agreement was signed between GAIL, GDF and Shell to cover sourcing of LNG and the marketing of the regasified LNG from the terminal. For this venture, GAIL held 48 per cent stake and the remaining was split equally between GDF and Shell. However, the project never got off the ground as the foreign partners insisted on GAIL getting firm customers of imported LNG first, sources said adding GAIL however felt it cannot guarantee any minimum offtake in absence of indicative price of imported gas. This particularly because Indian Oil Corp (IOC) is setting up a 5 mtpa LNG import terminal at Ennore to cater to demand in the state while Adani Group is leading a joint venture to set up another similar capacity import facility at Dhamra in Odisha. The terminals had already led to Petronet LNG – the nation’s largest importer of liquefied natural gas, shelving its plans to build a 5 mtpa facility at Gangavaram in Andhra Pradesh. GAIL had in 2011 set up APGDC as a joint venture company with the government of Andhra Pradesh to set up regional gas pipeline distribution network and to develop projects to sell CNG in major cities of state. GAIL Gas Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of GAIL, held 50 per cent stake in APGDC while the balance was with state government entity Andhra Pradesh Gas Infrastructure Corp (APGIC). APGDC has been authorised by the regulator PNGRB to lay, build, operate and expand natural gas pipeline from Kakinada to Srikakulam having length of 301 km for the mainline. The pipeline will cover four districts of Andhra Pradesh namely East Godavari, Vishakhapatnam, Vizianagaram and Srikakulam. APGDC is also in the process of obtaining authorisation to lay further pipelines within the state. Lane Johnson Womens Jersey
Petroleum Ministry may block oil PSUs buying GDF stake in Petronet
Petroleum Ministry may block any attempt by state-owned GAIL, IOC, ONGC and BPCL to buy 10 per cent stake of Frances GDF International in Petronet LNG Ltd as it is keen to keep the liquefied natural gas importer a private limited company. GDF, a unit of French energy giant Engie SA, has written to sell its entire stake in Petronet to the companys principal promoters — gas utility GAIL India Ltd, explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) and refiners Indian Oil Corp (IOC) and Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL). At present, the four companies hold 49.99 per cent stake of Petronet. If any of the promoters were to buy GDFs stake, the combined shareholding of state-owned firms will rise above 50 per cent and will lead to conversion of Petronet into a public sector company, something that oil ministry does not want, sources privy to the development said. Though Petronet is registered as a private company, Government of India’s Secretary in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas is its Chairman. By its private nature, the company is currently out of purview of CAG audit as well as any Parliamentary scrutiny. “We can exercise our right of first refusal to buy GDF stake but what is the use. We will never get permission from the ministry,” a top official at one of the promoters said. The Ministrys desire to keep the company private had led to none of the four promoters exercising their right of first buy when in August 2011 Asian Development Bank (ADB) offered to sell its entire 5.2 per cent stake in Petronet. All the four promoter firms IOC, ONGC, GAIL and BPCL were originally interested in buying ADBs 5.2 per cent stake but management of Petronet was opposed to it as it would have led to PSU holding crossing 50 per cent. The board of all the four promoter companies approved exercising the first right of refusal over ADB stake but the Ministry vetoed the proposal at a meeting on March 26, 2012. Eventually, ADB in September 2014 sold 39 million shares via a block deal to CitiGroup and HDFC Mutual Fund for Rs 7.145 billion. EDF holds 75 million shares in Petronet, which at Fridays closing price on BSE of Rs 448.15, is valued at Rs 33.61 billion. Petronet is Indias biggest importer of liquefied natural gas. GDF International had in March sent a communication to each of the promoters offering “a first right of purchase/refusal in relation to the proposed sale of 10 per cent equity shares in the company in the same proportion in which the promoters are holding equity shares in the company.” The four promoter firms hold 12.5 per cent stake each in Petronet. Going by this proportion, they are each entitled to buy 2.5 per cent of GDFs stake. But now, it is unlikely that anyone of them will exercise that option given that Petronet has been structured as a private company, sources added. Eddie Giacomin Authentic Jersey
GAIL to open new energy route for India with US shale gas
GAIL will open a new energy route for India early next year by beginning regular imports of shale gas from the US, adding to New Delhi’s bargaining power with its predominantly West Asian suppliers. The gas utility will begin importing gas in ships under a long-term contract from Dominion Cove Point LNG (liquefied natural gas) project from March 2018 and has floated tender for chartering ships for transportation. The company has also made a time-swap deal for a million ton of US gas for 2018-19 in an attempt to recast its supply portfolio in line with domestic demand. Chairman B C Tripathi on Monday said the company initially sees US shipments replacing spot cargoes and will charter four ships to begin with. “We bought about 55 spot cargoes totalling under four million ton of gas in 2016. This is expected to increase and be replaced by the US shipments.” Chris Herndon Authentic Jersey