ONGC second quarter net profit falls 37 per cent to Rs 5,487 crore
Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), India’s state-owned petroleum explorer, today posted a 37 per cent decline in consolidated net profit at Rs 5,487 crore for the second quarter ended September 2019, on the back of lower production and price realisation. The company had posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 8,731 crore in the corresponding quarter ended September 2018. ONGC’s revenue from operations during the second quarter declined 10.50 per cent to Rs 101,554 crore as compared to the corresponding quarter a year ago. Its overall crude oil production during the quarter dropped 3.9 per cent to 5.84 Million Tonne (MT). Crude oil price realization from nominated fields during the second quarter declined 17. 4 per cent to $60.33 per barrel, while realization from oil fields operated under Joint Ventures declined 13 per cent to $60.99 per barrel. The company’s total natural gas production during the second quarter declined 1.6 per cent to 6.26 Billion Cubic Meter (BCM) while gas price realization during the quarter increased 20.6 per cent to $3.69 million british thermal units as compared to the same period last year.
India’s Oct diesel demand falls the most in nearly 3 years
India’s diesel demand in October fell at its steepest annual rate in nearly three years, provisional government data showed, reflecting subdued industrial and economic activity during the month. Local sales of diesel, which accounts for about two-fifths of overall fuel consumption, slipped 7.4 per cent year-on-year to 6.51 million tonnes. The annual decline was the most since January 2017, according to data posted on the website of Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell. Demand for diesel in the world’s third biggest oil importer is seen as a measure of industrial vibrancy as it is used, for example, to fuel trucks transporting goods across the country. Declining diesel consumption is forcing refiners to export the fuel, adding to abundant supplies in Asia and weighing on refining margins for 10ppm gasoil. A fall in auto sales over the last year in tandem with a shift by motorists to gasoline powered vehicles, has also contributed to the fall in diesel consumption. Sales of gasoline, or petrol, rose 8.9 per cent in October from a year earlier, to 2.54 million tonnes. However, demand for diesel is expected to recover in the next six months as the longer-than-usual monsoon season that affected transportation and industry has ended, the chairman of top domestic refiner Indian Oil Corp said on Monday. Slowing economic and industrial activity has already led some global agencies to cut their Indian fuel demand forecasts. The International Energy Agency expects oil consumption growth to drop to 170,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2019, the slowest since 2014. Asia’s third-largest economy expanded by just 5 per cent in the June quarter, its slowest pace since 2013, and the International Monetary Fund has cut its growth forecast for this fiscal year. “We don’t see a significant revival in (GDP growth) for some time. No doubt, the slowdown in consumption has weighed on diesel too,” said Jigar Trivedi, a commodities analyst at Mumbai-based Anand Rathi Shares & Stock Brokers. Overall refined fuels consumption, a proxy for oil demand, fell 1.4 per cent to 17.41 million tonnes on an annual basis in October, the steepest decline since June. In April-October 2019, the first seven months of this fiscal year, India’s fuel demand grew by 1 per cent from a year ago, the data showed. Growth in fuel demand in India is on course to fall to its lowest in at least six years as the economy slows and after heavy rains impacted gasoil consumption. Fuel demand fell to its lowest in a year in September, revised data shows.
Tamil Nadu: Indian Oil bottling plant to enhance storage soon
The Madurai LPG bottling plant of the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) in Mattaparai village in Dindigul district, will soon enhance its storage capacity from the current 900 (3 x 300) metric tonne (MT) by another 1,800 (3 x 600 MT). The plant is awaiting regulatory clearance. Speaking to reporters in Madurai on Thursday, DGM K S Shankar, DGM (LPG), Tamil Nadu, and general manager R Chidambaram, southern region said the 37-acre campus has state-of-the-art security measures including fire safety equipment and caters to Madurai, Dindigul, Virudhunagar, Tuticorin, Tirunelveli and Kanyakumari districts through a network of 115 distributors. The plant has a capacity to fill and distribute 19,000 cylinders per day. While the annual capacity is the delivery of 60,000 cylinders, in 2018-19, it produced 93,000 cylinders, as the demand went up. The electronic carousel fills 24 cylinders per minute and 1,400 cylinders per hour. The filled cylinders are checked for valve leaks and o-ring leaks, through remote monitoring. The defective valves are replaced immediately. The plant fills domestic cylinders of 14.2 kg, commercial use cylinders of 19kg, nano cut cylinders for commercial applications, besides the smaller 5kg cylinder. It has also started supplying jumbo LPG cylinders weighing 425kg for commercial use. The officials said that the plant is equipped with a 100KW solar plant, while an organic waste converter helps deal with the waste generated by the canteen. Safety measures are given utmost importance and is covered by a fire water hydrant network and gas monitoring system, to tackle emergencies.
Delhi to soon start trial of hydrogen-run CNG buses
The Supreme Court has suggested looking into hydrogen-run vehicles as a solution for NCR’s poor air quality and while the technology will take some time to appear in the capital, buses running on hydrogen-enriched CNG (HCNG) are going to hit the city’s roads very soon. As part of a pilot project, 50 buses of the cluster scheme will be run using HCNG, which is much cleaner as compared to Compressed Natural Gas (CNG). “A four-tonne per day compact reformer-based HCNG production plant at Rajghat-1 bus depot of Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) is going to be commissioned next month and trial run of HCNG-run buses would start soon,” an official said. In July, Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL), which developed the technology to create HCNG, and Indraprastha Gas Limited (IGL) laid the foundation stone of the plant. Compared to physical blending of hydrogen with CNG, the use of compact reforming process is 30% more cost effective, according to IOCL. For using HCNG, separate buses are not required and the present CNG-run buses can be easily used with a little tuning. “We are aiming to commission the plant by December, subject to statutory clearances,” an IGL spokesperson said. After the commissioning, buses will be operated using HCNG on a trial-run for six months, the official added. It was, in fact, a directive of SC in July 2018 had led to IOCL and IGL collaborating to put up the first semi-commercial plant as a pilot project for conducting the study on the use of HCNG fuel in 50 BS IV compliant CNG-run buses in Delhi. Mixing hydrogen with CNG physically is a difficult proposition and that is why IOCL came up with the compact reforming process, which reforms CNG and the need for mixing is eliminated. For the pilot project, around 50 buses of Anthony Road Transport Limited (a cluster scheme concessionaire) will be fed with HCNG and their efficiency and emissions will be recorded during the six-month trial run and then submitted to the Supreme Court. Four tonne of hydrogen-enriched CNG will be produced at the plant daily and the excess fuel generated will be used to run generators, which will produce electricity. To begin with, it is likely that HCNG might cost a few paise more than CNG per unit but once production is scaled up, the costs are expected to come down.
India’s Oct diesel demand falls the most in nearly 3 years
India’s diesel demand in October fell at its steepest annual rate in nearly three years, provisional government data showed, reflecting subdued industrial and economic activity during the month. Local sales of diesel, which accounts for about two-fifths of overall fuel consumption, slipped 7.4 per cent year-on-year to 6.51 million tonnes. The annual decline was the most since January 2017, according to data posted on the website of Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell. Demand for diesel in the world’s third biggest oil importer is seen as a measure of industrial vibrancy as it is used, for example, to fuel trucks transporting goods across the country. Declining diesel consumption is forcing refiners to export the fuel, adding to abundant supplies in Asia and weighing on refining margins for 10ppm gasoil. A fall in auto sales over the last year in tandem with a shift by motorists to gasoline powered vehicles, has also contributed to the fall in diesel consumption. Sales of gasoline, or petrol, rose 8.9 per cent in October from a year earlier, to 2.54 million tonnes. However, demand for diesel is expected to recover in the next six months as the longer-than-usual monsoon season that affected transportation and industry has ended, the chairman of top domestic refiner Indian Oil Corp said on Monday. Slowing economic and industrial activity has already led some global agencies to cut their Indian fuel demand forecasts. The International Energy Agency expects oil consumption growth to drop to 170,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2019, the slowest since 2014. Asia’s third-largest economy expanded by just 5 per cent in the June quarter, its slowest pace since 2013, and the International Monetary Fund has cut its growth forecast for this fiscal year. “We don’t see a significant revival in (GDP growth) for some time. No doubt, the slowdown in consumption has weighed on diesel too,” said Jigar Trivedi, a commodities analyst at Mumbai-based Anand Rathi Shares & Stock Brokers. Overall refined fuels consumption, a proxy for oil demand, fell 1.4 per cent to 17.41 million tonnes on an annual basis in October, the steepest decline since June. In April-October 2019, the first seven months of this fiscal year, India’s fuel demand grew by 1 per cent from a year ago, the data showed. Growth in fuel demand in India is on course to fall to its lowest in at least six years as the economy slows and after heavy rains impacted gasoil consumption. Fuel demand fell to its lowest in a year in September, revised data shows.