No impact on output at BPCL Kochi refinery
BPCL’s Kochi refinery suffered as crude supply was delayed due to the floods in the state but it ensured output would not be disrupted going ahead as it had 8-10 days of crude oil inventory available, refinery’s executive director Prasad K Panicker told ET. After being flooded for almost a fortnight, Kerala is slowly crawling back to normal life as flood water has started to recede. Reports suggest that petrol pump stations have seen spurt in vehicles coming for refill. “Petroleum product supplies have not been impacted, other than in some parts of Kerala during peak flooding. Now things are getting back to normal,” Panicker said. Kochi Refinery, located at Ambalamugal near Kochi, has a crude oil refining capacity of 15.5 million tonnes per annum (MMTPA). The refinery had to stop unloading from a crude tanker as the sea swelled and other vessels could not be brought in either. An executive from the refinery said while the main unit did not get inundated, the water pumping plant was flooded and the substation went under water. The refinery sourced water from alternate sources using dieseldriven pumps then. “There was no flood at the refinery and we are running at 100% capacity. Our operations were not impacted. Supplies were initially disrupted because road and rail movement were disrupted but it is getting back to normalcy now,” Panicker said. Kawann Short Womens Jersey
Government imposes restrictions on import of bio-fuels
The government has imposed restriction on import of bio-fuels including ethyl alcohol and other denatured spirits, bio-diesel, petroleum oils and oils obtained from bituminous minerals other than crude, through an amendment in import policy. The import of these items, which was free earlier, will now only be allowed for non-fuel purpose on actual user basis. “Import policy of bio-fuels revised from ‘free’ to ‘restricted’ and allowed for non-fuel purpose on actual user basis as per the National Bio-Fuel Policy,” the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) said in a notification. In another notification, the government said export of beach sand minerals has been brought under state trading enterprise and shall be canalised through Indian Rare Earths Limited. Export of rare earth compounds classified as beach sand minerals, permitted anywhere in the export policy, will now be regulated. Joel Heath Jersey
In poll-bound Chhattisgarh, women stick to chulhas despite LPG scheme
Vimla Nishad bends on her small chulha and tries to light a fire. Her two-room house fills up with smoke and her two-year-old son starts coughing. The firewood is damp as it has been raining the whole day so it is taking longer to light up. She looks around nervously as it is 8 pm and she has to get the dinner going. Sitting in one corner of her bare kitchen is her LPG cylinder – empty. Vimla, a resident of Lahanga village in Durg district, is a beneficiary of Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, a flagship programme of Modi government which provides clean cooking fuel to below poverty line (BPL) urban and rural households. The scheme was rolled out on May 1, 2016 in Balia in Uttar Pradesh with an aim to replace unclean cooking fuels with LPG. On the ground, it is a different story. ET travelled through election-bound Chhattisgarh to find women have still not given up traditional fuels like firewood and dung cakes and still cook on their earthen chulhas. With meagre incomes villagers find refills expensive and claim they are often short-changed by LPG dealers. A NEW WAY OF LIFE For new users in villages, LPG cylinders have not become a way of life. Vimla’s mother-in-law Uttara lives close to her home. “I got the cylinder in a camp in May,” says Uttara showing her gas stove. She, however, does not know how to use it. “I still use my chulha. My daughter uses it.” Her daughter Sulochana is the only earning member of the family. She works as a casual labourer in a farm. “My mother has never seen the cylinder and she is so old it is difficult to ask her to switch now,” says Sulochana. While she is away at work, Uttara cooks on the chulha. The evening meal is cooked on the gas stove by Sulochana. For several other women, switching completely over to LPG cylinder is not even an option. Kaushalya Narang of Bhatgaon village in Raipur district has 11 children. “It is a struggle to cook just on the gas. I have a large family so I cook on the gas and my chulha,” she says showing her chulha, which has blackened an entire wall of her kitchen. When you point that it is not safe to have a chulha near the gas stove, she shrugs it off and says, “Try cooking for 11 children and a husband in the morning. This is not even a thought.” She puts her rice on the chulha and dal and sabzi on the gas stove. ECONOMICS OF UJJWALA More than the habit, it is the economics that deters women from switching over to LPG. Vimla’s LPG cylinder ran out two months back. “My husband is a casual labourer. A refill is too expensive at Rs 800-900. It is cheaper for me to go for firewood nearby and light a fire,” she says. Har Bai Patle of Kewtara village in Bilaspur district explains the economics. “The first cylinder is for free. It lasts upto 2 months and then we have to go for refill, which is Rs 850-900 now. We are agricultural labourers. So at one time we do not have this kind of money to spare. Even then, it is more expensive than the uplas (cow dung cakes). We can make these at home or even buy for Rs 600 a supply for 3-3.5 months. How is it even comparable?” asks Patle. It is this logic which is behind gas cylinders and stoves lying unused in corners of rural households in the state. Villagers also complain of being short-changed by the new initiative. Manisha, another resident of Kewtara village, says even refills are not done completely. “When we go, they charge us the full amount but don’t fill the cylinder completely. We realise it now since the first cylinder lasted us 2 months but the refill finished in just a month,” she said. When contacted, a spokesperson of ministry of petroleum and natural gas said, “Shift to LPG as the main and only fuel for a rural household is a process which may happen only gradually and not overnight. It involves transformation of mindset and social behavioural changes which will take some time. The ministry has taken up an initiative, LPG PANCHAYAT, to proactively connect with the LPG consumers (rural women, in particular) and motivate them about benefits of shifting to LPG as a clean cooking fuel.” The financial constraints have been acknowledged by the ministry and now it is trying to popularise 5-kg cylinder refill. The spokesperson said, “In terms of constraints for accessing refills, the affordability issue is sought to be addressed through 5 kg refills and accessibility issue through expanding distribution network. We are targeting 5000 new distributorships by March 2019, out of which 1100 have already come up. All these would come up in rural areas only.” Charles Harris Jersey
Indian Oil Corporation to invest over Rs 370 billion in Tamil Nadu
Energy major Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) will be investing about Rs 71.12 billion in infrastructure facilities in Tamil Nadu over the next three years, said a senior official. At the IOC group level — IOC and group company Chennai Petroleum Corporation Ltd — will be investing about Rs 371.12 billion in Tamil Nadu. “The investments will be in pipeline expansion, construction of captive jetty, additional facilities for petrol and diesel handling, POL (petroleum, oils and lubricants) terminals at an outlay of Rs,71.12 billion in the next three years,” R. Sitharthan, Executive Director – Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, told IANS. He said, group company Chennai Petroleum will be expanding its refinery capacity at Narimanam to nine million ton per annum at an outlay of about Rs 300 billion. These apart, the company will be investing in the city gas distribution network in Coimbatore and Salem where it has won the distribution bids recently, Sitharthan said. Sitharthan said pipelines are being laid down at various places to carry the gas from the Ennore LNG terminal to industries and also to carry carry other petroleum products. On the other hand, IOC’s joint venture for the five million ton per annum (tpa) liquified natural gas (LNG) terminal at Ennore has an investment of Rs 51.51 billion and is expected to be ready by December this year. Johnny Bower Jersey
India seeks re-negotiation in gas price from TAPI pipeline
India had previously used its position as world’s fastest-growing energy consumer to renegotiate gas import deals with Australia, Russia and Qatar. India has sought re-negotiation of the natural gas price it is to source through a proposed USD 10 billion Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline in view of the slump in global energy markets, a top source said. The four nations to the pipeline projects had in 2013 signed a gas sale purchase agreement (GSPA) that benchmarked the price of natural gas that Turkmenistan is to export at 55 per cent of the prevailing crude oil price. This translates into a price of about USD 7.5 per million British thermal unit (mmBtu) at current oil prices at the Turkmen border. Added to this would be transit fee and transportation charges which would jack up the rates to over USD 10.5 per mmBtu at the Indian border, the source said. For a consumer, the price would be around USD 13 per mmBtu after adding local taxes and transportation charges. “This rate in the present global energy scenario is unacceptable. And so taking into cognizance of the current gas market, India has proposed for re-negotiation of GSPA,” the source said. The price of Turkmen gas is more than double of the USD 3.6 per mmBtu rate paid for post natural gas producers in India. Leaders of the four countries performed the ground-breaking of the project in December 2015 but the project hasn’t moved significantly since then. The source said the project has not moved forward because of unresolved issues like the economic viability of the project, security of supply and tie-up of debt and equity. The four nations have incorporated TAPI Pipeline Company Limited (TPCL) in Isle of Man to build, own, and operate the TAPI Pipeline. Turkmenistan’s Turkmengas has been appointed as the consortium leader. State gas utility GAIL India Ltd represents India on the consortium. TAPI pipeline is nearly 1,680-kilometers long, with 735-km in Afghanistan and nearly 800-km in Pakistan. The 56-inch diameter pipeline will run from Turkmenistan’s Yoloten-Osman gas field to Herat and Kandahar province of Afghanistan, before entering Pakistan. In Pakistan, it will reach Multan via Quetta before ending at Fazilka (Punjab) in India. Turkmenistan would export 90 million standard cubic meters per day of gas through TAPI, with Afghanistan getting 14 mmscmd and India and Pakistan 38 mmscmd each. The gas will be sourced from the Yoloten Usman field, which ranks amongst the five biggest fields in the world. The field is being developed by Turkmenistan national oil firm TurkmenGas. India had previously used its position as world’s fastest-growing energy consumer to renegotiate gas import deals with Australia, Russia and Qatar. Renegotiating terms of the 20-year deal to import 2.5 million tons a year of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Gazprom saved the country between Rs 85 billion and Rs 95 billion over the contract period ending 2040. Last year, India got US energy major Exxon Mobil Corp to lower the price of 1.5 million tons a year of LNG from Gorgon project in Australia, saving Rs 40 billion in import bill. In 2015, it renegotiated a long-term deal for the supply of 7.5 million tons of LNG with Qatar, saving around Rs 80 billion. Morgan Burnett Authentic Jersey