Rajasthan: Kota piped gas network to be expanded
The Rajasthan State Gas Ltd will further expand the gas pipeline network of 161km and provide 8,000 new connections in Kota. Senior officials in RSGL said that seven CNG stations have already been set up in the coaching town of the country. Currently, around 15,700 households in Kota have piped natural gas connections and RSGL is trying to cover the whole city with the expansion of the new pipeline network. At a meeting on Wednesday presided by mines and petroleum secretary and chairman of RSGL Ajitabh Sharma, Mohan Singh, managing director of RSGL said that very soon, they will issue 8,000 more connections to households. Recently, RSGL set up seven CNG stations as well. A senior official of RSGL said that three more stations are also in the pipeline. Couple of years ago, RSGL set up two CNG stations having one mother station in Neemrana, Alwar and another at Kukas to cater to the vehicles plying on Jaipur-Delhi highway and also meet the needs of the industry in Neemrana. RSGL is also developing a network of urban gas distribution system in Gwalior and Sheopur in Madhya Pradesh.
Shell’s 2020 carbon emissions fall on the back of fuel sales drop
Royal Dutch Shell, owner of the world’s largest fuel retail network, said on Thursday its total greenhouse gas emissions dropped 16% in 2020 as oil and gas sales fell sharply due to the coronavirus pandemic. Shell said in its annual report that total emissions from its oil wells to forecourt fuel sales fell to 1.38 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent last year, from 1.65 billion in 2019. “One of the major causes of this larger than expected reduction in 2020 was lower demand for energy, especially for oil and gas,” it said. Energy majors’ climate reporting differs in that some emissions data, for example the data Shell released on Thursday, includes planet-warming gases from the combustion of fuels they produce themselves plus the oil products they sell but are produced by another company. Others, like BP, only cover the former: emissions from the combustion of fuels made from crude oil they produce themselves. Net carbon intensity, the main measure the Anglo-Dutch focuses on in its energy transition strategy, dropped last year to 75 grams of CO2 equivalent per megajoules, a 4% reduction from 2019, Shell said. Carbon energy intensity means a company can increase its fossil fuel output while offsetting its carbon emissions or adding renewable energy to its product mix. Shell has begun a major overhaul to shift away from oil and gas to low-carbon energy, power trading and retail in order to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by mid-century, including the use of offsets for residual emissions. Shell runs around 46,000 retail fuel stations. Its executives’ pay is linked to its success in reaching its climate targets. For a Factbox on Big Oil’s targets click
Centre unlikely to extend timeline for execution of norms aimed at cutting CO2 emission from vehicles from 2022
The Centre is unlikely to extend the timeline for the implementation of the second phase of Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency/ Economy (CAFE) norms for vehicle manufacturers, which aims at further reducing the CO2 emission from vehicles from April 2022. Sources said Union road transport minister Nitin Gadkari made this clear to the industry at a meeting held last week where he also flagged how the vehicle manufacturers have not been able to come up with a road map to push the production of flex-fuel engines, which can run on both conventional and clean fuels such as ethanol. Source said the industry body, in October, had assured Gadkari to come up with its roadmap for accelerating the production of flex-fuel engines by January. But they have not yet presented the report. The minister has urged the industry to take necessary steps to promote use of 100% ethanol as fuel in vehicles. The CAFE norms aim at lowering fuel consumption or improving fuel efficiency of vehicles and this is achieved by lowering CO2 emissions. The ‘Corporate Average’ in CAFE means the weighted average of the sales volumes for vehicle manufacturers. CAFE standards are applicable for vehicles running on petrol, diesel, CNG and LPG. The auto industry body, SIAM has been pursuing the government to defer the implementation of CAFE-2 regulations to 2024. The industry has claimed it is still recovering from the impact of Covid-19 and slow consumer demand. The CAFE-1 norm has been applicable since 2017 and the government has set April 1, 2022 for the implementation of the second phase. These CAFE norms call for cars to turn 30% more fuel efficient from 2022 and 10% or more by March 2021. Concurrently with BS VI, the original equipment manufacturers need to find efficient and clean power train options to meet the CAFE targets.