India’s fuel demand falters in the first fortnight of January 2021
India’s fuel sales faltered in the first fortnight of January as festive and holiday season demands evaporated, indicating the economy may be pausing to catch its breath. Latest market data shows diesel demand falling 3.5% short of the same period of 2020. This shows a slowing demand as compared to December when sales had risen to 97% of the pre-pandemic level. Growth in petrol sales also appeared to have flattened as car sales dropped to their lowest in a decade. Petrol sales clocked 8.5% growth over January 2020, nearly the same as in December. The year-on-year numbers may not appear alarming, partly because of the base effect. But the trend of demand slowing becomes all too clear when compared against the first fortnight of December. Data shows diesel demand in the first fortnight of January down 6.6% from the same period of December. Petrol too sold 6% less than the same fortnight a month ago. Jet fuel sales were 48% down from the same period of 2020 as the number of flights still remained curtailed. Here too signs of faltering demand become evident, considering sales were only 43% short of the pre-pandemic level in December. Compared to the first fortnight of December, sales were down nearly 5% in the period under review. LPG continued to remain in positive territory with over 5% growth over a year ago but was 0.6% down from the first fortnight of December. Diesel consumption, one of the key barometers of economic activity, had covered slack to reach 97% of the year-ago period in December. It had dropped 7% from the year-ago period in November after shooting past the pre-pandemic level for the first time in eight months in October by clocking a 6% year-on-year growth.
Arun Kumar Singh takes over as Chairman of IGL
Indraprastha Gas Ltd (IGL), the state-owned gas distributor, announced Arun Kumar Singh, Director (Marketing), Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) has taken over the additional responsibility as Chairman of the company. He has replaced P K Gupta, Director (Human Resources), GAIL (India), who has relinquished the charge upon completion of the two-year Chairmanship tenure of IGL by GAIL (India) Ltd. Singh is a Mechanical Engineer from NIT Patna and is Director (Marketing), BPCL apart from holding additional charge of Director (Refineries) in the company. He is also a Director on the Board of Bharat Gas Resources Ltd, a wholly-owned Subsidiary of BPCL engaged in natural gas business. Singh is also on the Board of Bharat Oman Refineries Limited, a subsidiary of BPCL engaged in refining business and is serving on the board of Petronet LNG. He had earlier held the position of Chairman, IGL between October 2018 and January 2019. IGL is a joint venture between GAIL (India), BPCL and the Delhi government. It is the largest Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) distribution company of the country, supplying CNG and Piped Natural Gas (PNG) in Delhi and Noida, Greater Noida, Ghaziabad, Muzaffarnagar and Fatehpur in Uttar Pradesh apart from Gurugram, Rewari, Karnal and Kaithal in Haryana.
IEA says oil, gas methane emissions down 10 per cent in 2020 as output fell
Global emissions of the potent greenhouse gas methane from oil and gas production dropped 10 per cent in 2020 mainly because of lower output as opposed to concerted climate action, a report by the International Energy Agency (IEA) found. Methane has more than 80 times the warming potential of carbon dioxide in its first 20 years in the atmosphere and is liable to leak from oil and gas infrastructure, such as pipelines. Other industries, including agriculture, are also big methane emitters. Last year, oil and gas operations emitted over 70 million tonnes of methane, or around 10 per cent less than in 2019, the IEA, which helps governments set energy policy, said. “A large part of the drop in methane emissions in 2020 occurred not because companies were taking more care to avoid methane leaks from their operations, but simply because they were producing less oil and gas,” the IEA said. “There is clearly a risk that this downward trend will be reversed by an increase in production to fuel a rebound in global economic activity.” An unprecedented deal in April between the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, Russia and other nations cut oil production by around 10 million barrels per day, or 10 per cent of pre-coronavirus global demand. U.S. sanctions have crippled Venezuelan production and Libya’s oil industry has suffered from prolonged domestic strife. U.S. producers were hit by oil prices slumping in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic sapped demand and a volume war broke out between Russia and Saudi Arabia. In the IEA’s Sustainable Development Scenario, which would see global warming curbed to manageable levels, energy sector methane emissions would have to fall to below 50 million tonnes by 2025 and below 25 million tonnes by 2030. Publicly listed energy majors and some national oil companies are members of the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative that has set methane reduction targets. “We estimate that around 10 per cent of leaks in 2020 could be avoided at no net cost,” the IEA said. In absolute terms, Russia and the United States were the biggest emitters of methane, the IEA figures showed.
Italy’s ENI, trader Vitol place lowest offers for Pakistan LNG March tender
Italy’s ENI and commodity trader Vitol Bahrain have offered the lowest prices to supply three liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargoes to Pakistan LNG Limited (PLL) for delivery in March, according to a document posted on the company website. ENI offered a cargo for delivery over March 9 to 10 at a percentage of the Brent crude oil futures price, known as a slope rate, of 22.2421%, according to the document. Vitol offered a slope rate of 17.8131% for a cargo for March 16 to 17 delivery and a slope rate of 17.1917% for a cargo for March 22 to 23 delivery. PLL is a government subsidiary that procures LNG from the international market. Other companies which had placed offers into the tender include PetroChina International, Qatar Petroleum Trading, POSCO International and BB Energy, the document stated.
Delhi govt aims to reduce 5 million tonne carbon emissions
Efforts are being made to reduce the increasing pollution levels in the national capital by improving the transport system in the state. The Delhi government believes that by improving the transport system as well as reducing traffic jams, harmful particles such as PM10 and PM2.5 which cause air pollution could be reduced by up to 5 million tonnes. Delhi’s public transport system and electric vehicle policy could prove to be a significant step in this direction. The Electric Vehicle policy focuses on making electric vehicles to 25 per cent by 2024 whereas till now this number is just 0.2 per cent. The clarity about the necessary measures to be taken for the transformation of electric vehicles has enabled the Delhi government to take concrete decisions. Delhi’s Electric Vehicle Policy would reduce carbon emissions by 4.8 million tonnes by 2024, said Jasmin Shah, Vice-Chairman of the Delhi Dialogue and Development Commission. At the same time, to make the public transport system more effective, the Delhi government is adding 1,000 low floor AC buses to the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) bus fleet. The new fleet of buses would also be used to reduce traffic jams in south, central and east Delhi. Such routes in Delhi would be identified where there is a need to strengthen the public transport system. This step by the Delhi government would not only solve the problem of traffic jams here but would also reduce the pollution caused by traffic jams. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said the Delhi government is committed to making Delhi pollution-free by creating a world class public transport system. The Delhi government officially released information and said that if the drivers stop their vehicles only at the red light, by doing so they would reduce pollution caused by 1.5 lakh tonnes of PM 10 while in PM 2.5, there would be a reduction of 0.4 lakh tonnes. The Delhi government would train all the drivers associated with the public transport system for achieving this step. DTC’s fleet is going to add new buses after 12 years. Chief Minister Kejriwal said all such new buses would ply on the Delhi roads by September 20 this year. The total number of buses in DTC’s fleet would now reach an all-time high of 7,693. In the last two years, 1,681 new buses have been added to the bus fleet in Delhi. These buses would be equipped with BS-6 standard compliance, air-conditioned buses with real-time passenger information system, CCTVs, panic buttons, GPS and other facilities.