Russia’s Gazprom in talks on five-year Turkmen gas contract
Russian natural gas producer Gazprom is in talks to sign a five-year contract to buy gas in Turkmenistan, Interfax news agency cited Russian Deputy Energy Minister Anatoly Yanovsky as saying on Thursday. The talks are expected to be completed in May-June, RIA news agency cited Yanovsky as saying. He did not say what volume of gas was being discussed.
1,235 CNG buses may go off the roads over dues
More than 1,200 gas-powered public transport buses could go off the roads soon, if the Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML) fails to clear pending dues. Maharashtra Natural Gas Limited (MNGL), which supplies CNG to the transport utility, is owed Rs48.92 crore. The move stands to affect lakhs who travel daily on the 1,235 CNG-powered buses. In a meeting attended by PMPML chief Nayana Gunde on Wednesday, the gas utility threatened to cut off supply. “Gunde sought two or three days to speak seek funds from the Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad municipal commissioners. If the dues are not cleared in this interval, we will discontinue the supply,” an MNGL official said. MNGL said the dues had been mounting for the last year-and-a-half, as the transport utility has only been making part payments for gas consumed every month. “As per the contract, the PMPML need not pay anything for the first 15 days of the month. On the 16th day, they must pay Rs4.5 crore and thereafter, Rs30 lakh daily till the end of the month,” an MNGL official explained. “PMPML consumes CNG worth Rs10 crore per month, of which only Rs5-7 crore is paid,” the official explained. The gas utility said it shot off 33 letters to various authorities — PMPML, PMC, PCMC, the collector, guardian minister, and state urban development department included — between December 2018 and May 15. “We didn’t receive a positive response. Some have not even acknowledged receiving the communication,” the official claimed. The MNGL official said the transport body has accumulated dues to the tune of Rs28 crore; after applying a penal interest and GST, the total arrears stand at Rs48.92 crore. The gas utility claimed that PMPML refuses to pay GST, as natural gas does not fall under GST’s purview. “However, GST is levied on all allied services, including transport of gas, which we pass on to the customers — PMPML in this case,” the official added. MNGL said the utility should have no trouble clearing the dues, as it regularly pays for diesel by way of advance demand draft. “To top it all, PMPML plans to add 400 more CNG buses to its fleet,” the official said. Gunde, meanwhile, said it was unlikely that MNGL will stop the supply. “We will seek funds from PMC and PCMC to pay MNGL. We don’t think they will stop providing CNG to us,” the PMPML chief said.
Gas station lines reappear in Venezuela as refinery halts, fuel imports plunge
Gas station lines reappeared across oil-rich but crisis-stricken Venezuela this week as gasoline imports plunged and the country’s second-largest oil refinery halted operations. Shortages of motor fuel have become a periodic occurrence across OPEC member Venezuela, particularly in border regions where smuggling to neighboring countries is common, the result of generous subsidies from state-run oil company PDVSA that have led to nearly-free gasoline. But this week lines at gas stations in the border states of Zulia and Bolivar were longer than usual, according to Reuters witnesses, and hours-long lines appeared outside service stations in the central states of Aragua and Carabobo. The capital Caracas showed no signs of gasoline shortages. PDVSA’s imports of fuel and diluents, which are mixed with Venezuela’s extra-heavy crude, have plunged to 86,000 barrels per day (bpd) on average so far in May, compared with 225,000 bpd for the full month of April, according to internal PDVSA documents and Refinitiv Eikon data. U.S. sanctions on PDVSA, part of a bid to pressure President Nicolas Maduro to step down, are squeezing government revenue by preventing Venezuela from shipping crude to the United States, previously its largest market. The sanctions also block U.S. companies from exporting gasoline to Venezuela, prompting PDVSA to import fuel from farther afield. In addition, Venezuela’s 310,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Cardon oil refinery, operated by PDVSA, halted operations on Wednesday because of damage at some of its units, two workers at the Paraguana refining complex said. It had been operating well below capacity even before the outage. Cardon is Venezuela’s second largest refinery after 645,000-bpd Amuay, which is adjacent to Cardon in Paraguana. As of Wednesday the refinery was processing just 115,000 bpd, one source said, while a second source said it was producing less than 140,000 bpd. The 187,000 bpd Puerto la Cruz refinery had been offline even before the sanctions were imposed in late January, while the 146,000 bpd El Palito refinery is operating at minimum levels. Neither PDVSA nor Venezuela’s oil ministry immediately responded to requests for comment. Venezuela’s refining infrastructure has deteriorated in recent years because of lack of maintenance and investment, prompting the government to import fuel for domestic use.
Activists occupy German pipeline in anti-Nord Stream protest
Police say activists have occupied a building site in northern Germany to protest against the ongoing Nord Stream 2 pipeline project with Russia. The dpa news agency reported that protesters, whose motto is “Stop up Nord Stream 2” crawled Thursday into a section of the pipeline that had already been laid near the town of Wrangelsburg. Police say they believe about five people are involved, and that they’re somewhere fairly deep in the pipeline. Dpa reports they are staging the protest to highlight the effects of natural gas on the climate. Nord Stream 2 will take natural gas under the Baltic directly from Russia to Germany. The so-called Eugal pipeline that the activists occupied will take the gas from the Baltic city of Greifswald to the Czech border.