Britain’s Cuadrilla pauses gas fracking after earth tremor
British shale gas company Cuadrilla has paused fracking at its Preston New Road site in Lancashire, northwest England, due to an earth tremor late on Wednesday. Cuadrilla, which restarted fracking at the site last week, repeatedly had to stop operations last year under Britain’s traffic light regulation system, which immediately suspends work if seismic activity of magnitude 0.5 or above is detected. “We can confirm that a micro seismic event measuring 1.55 ML (local magnitude) on the Richter scale occurred after we had completed the hydraulic fracturing programme for the day at our Preston New Road site,” Cuadrilla said in a statement. It said the well’s integrity had been checked and operations would be paused for 18 hours, as per the rules. Fracking, or hydraulically fracturing, involves extracting gas from rocks by breaking them up with water and chemicals at high pressure. Following last year’s stop-start operations Cuadrilla said it is using a thicker fracking liquid this time round, which it hoped would lead to fewer seismic events. The government last week signalled support for the industry and is keen to cut the country’s reliance on imports of natural gas, which is used to heat around 80% of Britain’s homes. However, it is fiercely opposed by environmentalists who say extracting more fossil fuel is at odds with Britain’s commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. “Fracking just isn’t part of the future if the government is serious about avoiding climate breakdown,” said Jamie Peters, campaigner at Friends of the Earth. Britain in June became the first G7 country to enshrine in law a target to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, which will require less use of natural gas. Cuadrilla is 47.4% owned by Australia’s AJ Lucas, while a fund managed by Riverstone holds a 45.2% stake.
India’s July petrol imports hit highest in at least eight years
India’s July crude oil imports declined from a year earlier, while petrol imports climbed to their highest since at least April 2011, data from the oil ministry’s Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) showed on Wednesday. Crude oil imports into the world’s third-largest consumer declined 1.2% from a year earlier to 19.34 million tonnes, but increased 14.6% from the previous month. Petrol imports rose to 230,000 tonnes in July, the highest since PPAC data going back to 2011. Government data published earlier this month showed sales of gasoline, or petrol, were 8.8% higher from a year earlier at 2.52 million tonnes. LNG imports, meanwhile, fell to their lowest since February 2018 at 850,000 tonnes. India’s imports of crude oil have stalled in recent months, with both coal and liquefied natural gas (LNG) also soft. This could be attributed to Indian refiners adjusting to the loss of cargoes from Iran after the United States did not extend waivers to buyers of Iranian crude beyond the beginning of May. Meanwhile, imports of oil products rose by about 9% from a year earlier to 2.81 million tonnes. Year-on-year exports fell 5% last month to 5.07 million tonnes, the data showed. Exports in Naphtha fell to their lowest since October 2015 at 400,000 tonnes.
HPCL to invest Rs 74,000 crore in five years
ONGC-owned Hindustan Petroleum Corporation(HPCL) is planning to invest around Rs 74,000 crore over the next five years to expand capacity. The Navaratna company plans to invest around Rs 14,900 crore in the current fiscal, chairman Mukesh Kumar Surana told shareholders after the annual general meeting here Wednesday evening. “We are focused on strengthening refining and marketing through expansion of our refining capacity, supply chain capabilities and customer reach. “In addition, the thrust is on creating new levers of growth by establishing a strong presence in petrochemicals, scaling up footprints in natural gas and expanding marketing overseas,” he said. The company, which owns and operates three refineries, has undertaken capacity expansion at refineries at Visakhapatnam and Mumbai. The modernization of the Visakhapatnam refinery will enhance capacity from 8.33 million tonnes to 15 mt. The capacity of the Mumbai refinery is also being enhanced from 7.5 mt to 9.5 mt. “On completion, these projects will enhance our profitability. We will have the capability to produce BS-VI fuels,” he added. Surana further said the 9 mt greenfield refinery-cum- petrochemical project coming up at Pachpadra in the Barmer district of Rajasthan has achieved significant progress. “Engineering activity is in progress and construction has commenced. Financial closure has also been achieved for this project. The project is being implemented at a cost of Rs 43,129 crore,” Surana said. The company is, he said, laying thrust on pipeline network expansion. “Ongoing pipeline projects with a total estimated investment of Rs 5,555 crore are in various stages of completion,” he added. The company also plans to build second-generation ethanol production facilities and market compressed bio-gas. Its net profit for fiscal 2019 stood at Rs 6,029 crore and gross refining margins (GRM) averaged at USD5.01 a barrel.
Humbled Noble Group seeks to rebuild LNG, energy businesses
Noble Group Holdings (Noble Holdings) plans to rebuild its liquefied natural gas (LNG) and core energy businesses and develop rare earths as it seeks new life as a niche, Asia-focused commodity trader, sources aware of the matter said. “We have enough credit lines to expand the LNG business. In our restructuring, we made sure we had ample credit facilities, so we could build the business that we lost,” said one senior executive with the company, which took over assets of the under-liquidation Noble Group Ltd. Noble Holdings has now set up a Singapore desk for LNG by hiring a former trader from Australia’s Origin Energy, expanding its four-person LNG team in London, industry sources told Reuters. “The company has always had an LNG team but activities were wound down for a while and are now starting back up,” one of the sources said, declining to be named as the person was not authorised to speak with the media. Three LNG traders including two co-heads of the team had left Noble in 2016 to join rival Glencore. It also sold its U.S. gas and power business to another rival, Mercuria. The new Singapore LNG desk will focus on trading, the source said. The restart of the desk has not been previously reported. “We’ve been in a process to prove to the market that Noble is a viable enterprise and can continue to fulfil contracts,” the company executive said, using a 3-year trade finance facility of $700 million secured as part of its restructure. Noble, once Asia’s biggest commodity trader, saw its market value all but wiped out from $6 billion in February 2015 after Iceberg Research issued reports accusing it of inflating its assets. To rescue itself, Noble sold billions of dollars of assets, took hefty writedowns and cut hundreds of jobs over the last few years, although it defended its accounting practices. As Noble faced insolvency protection, shareholders approved a $3.5 billion debt restructuring deal that completed in December and left them owning just 20 percent, with creditors taking majority control. Noble Holdings, whose portfolio comprises a trading division dealing in energy coal, LNG, base metals and other products, declined comment. Another division houses its investments in alumina company Jamalco and U.S. based oil and gas producer Harbour Energy and other businesses. The company is also recruiting for roles including analysts for base metals and coke, and a sales trader to market energy products in Japan, sources said. Technology metals or rare earths are expected to be a focus area for Noble Holdings, which through its subsidiary took a small stake in ambitious Australian rare earths developer Arafura Resources this year. The executive said Noble Holdings is eyeing other opportunities in the sector. In the first half of 2019, Noble Holdings reported a net profit of $46.4 million. Employing about 280 staff, it has been gradually building up its trading teams by hiring in Singapore and Hong Kong. In December, Singapore authorities blocked the listing of the restructured company amid a regulatory probe.