Now, shell out Rs 1,000 more than last year to fill up petrol tank
With the latest fuel hikes in Mumbai, you now pay Rs 1,000 more than what you would pay for filling up the vehicle tank with petrol in April last year. This is a huge jump and has burnt a hole in the pockets of motorists. Dealers, however, say that the rush at the pumps continues as usual and people are buying expensive fuel for transport even as petrol is retailing at Rs 105 a litre now. It was priced at Rs 76.31 a litre in April last year. On the other hand, the government has been earning a huge revenue, with the state earning around Rs 25,000 crore annually, an official said. The break up of petrol on Wednesday after series of over 100 hikes in the past one year is Rs 37.19 for the base price of the fuel while you pay Rs 34.36 for Central government excise and tax on every litre, Rs 29.54 goes in Maharashtra government’s kitty towards VAT and surcharge and dealers get a commission of Rs 3.87 per litre. “So you pay around Rs 68 towards government duty, taxes, and commission for every litre of petrol– which is a burden on consumers,” said a member of the Petrol Dealers Association. Activists have demanded that both Centre and state should roll back excise duty and VAT to some extent in order to give relief to consumers and bring down prices. Diesel was retailing at city pumps at a new high of Rs 96.77 a litre in the city. Although transporters protested peacefully on Monday across the state, they now threaten a nationwide chakka jam if the government doesn’t intervene and reduce rates, said Bal Malkit Singh of All India Motor Transport Congress. In case of petrol, Parbhani has the highest rate in Maharashtra at Rs 107.22 a litre. Ravi Shinde of Petrol Dealers Association said: “The ever-increasing burden of working capital without an increase in dealer margin for the last fours years has literally broken the back of low selling dealers. They are left struggling to beg banks to give more loans which they find difficult to repay. So, any hike in petrol or diesel does not benefit pump owners significantly.”
HPCL, GAIL to build 2G ethanol plants
Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) and Gas Authority of India Ltd (GAIL) are planning to build second generation (2G) grain-based refineries, to help boost India’s ethanol output by 2025. HPCL will invest Indian rupee (Rs) 4bn ($54m) on a 125,000 litre/day grain-based ethanol plant at Una in the Himachal Pradesh state in northern India, with plant site of 70 acres to be provided by the state government. Feedstock grains such as rice and maize for the plant would be sourced from four districts in Himachal Pradesh and two districts in neighbouring Punjab state, the company said. GAIL is planning a bigger grain-based ethanol plant with a 500,000 litres/day capacity, in joint venture with private partners. “We are seeking partners for an ethanol refinery, so that we can also be part of ethanol blending programme of the Government of India, which is now a new lucrative area, which has been opened by the government,” a senior company official said. Ethanol produced at the proposed plant would be sold to oil marketing companies for blending with petrol, he added. While the company is yet to finalise investment details and plant location, GAIL intends to build the refinery in an ethanol-deficient state, the company source said. India will need to produce more than 12bn litres (4.2bn tonnes) of ethanol to achieve its target of blending 20% ethanol in fuel by 2025, and to meet the requirements of the chemical and other sectors, as per GAIL’s assessment. Ethanol used for blending in fuel in the country is traditionally produced using sugarcane molasses and juice. By 2025, the government expects the sugar industry to produce 7bn litres of ethanol or 58% of the total output required, with grain-based and other 2G ethanol plants expected to produce the remaining 5bn litres. The government expects to achieve nearly an 8.5% ethanol blending rate for fuel from December 2020 to November 2021.
India fuel consumption picks up in June as lockdowns ease
India’s auto fuel demand picked up in June as economic activity accelerated after the easing of pandemic-related lockdowns, preliminary sales data showed on Thursday. State-run refiners sold 2.12 million tonnes of gasoline last month, up 29.35per cent from May and about 5.7per cent from the year-earlier period. Sales of gasoil, which accounts for about two-fifths of India’s overall refined fuel consumption and is directly linked to industrial activity in Asia’s third-largest economy, rose 18.5per cent from May to 5.36 million tonnes, but were down 1.84per cent from June 2020. Compared to June 2019, demand for gasoline and gasoil last month slipped 10.4per cent and 18.8per cent, respectively. Fuel demand in India would recover to pre-pandemic levels by the end of this year after being hit by a deadly second wave of coronavirus, oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Tuesday. In May, local fuel consumption, a proxy for oil demand, slumped to its lowest since last August as lockdowns and travel restrictions in several states stalled mobility and muted economic activity. State-run Indian Oil Corp, Hindustan Petroleum Corp and Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd own about 90per cent of India’s retail fuel outlets. Below is a table of India’ preliminary daily fuel sales data with volumes in million tonnes.
U.S. natgas companies put hydrogen to the test
NEW YORK, At least two dozen U.S. energy firms, including Dominion Energy Inc and Sempra Energy , have started producing hydrogen or testing its viability in natural gas pipes to take advantage of existing infrastructure as the world prioritizes lower-carbon fuels. Nations worldwide are trying to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, but that will rely heavily on technology – like hydrogen – that is in developmental stages. Utilities have a potential advantage if they find that clean-burning hydrogen can be successfully transported in existing gas pipes and power plants. But governments need legislation and regulation to encourage energy companies to spend billions in order to reduce production costs for green hydrogen, analysts said, before it can displace fossil fuels. Almost all of the world’s hydrogen production is currently through fossil fuels, and large utilities are currently mostly testing blends of natural gas and hydrogen in their pipelines. The companies experimenting with hydrogen are in early stages. Canada’s Enbridge Inc is blending up to 2per cent hydrogen into its natural gas distribution systems in Ontario, and just received approval to blend hydrogen in Quebec. “We are looking to understand the potential either with the existing system or, as we’re continuing to modernize the gas pipeline system, to ensure that new construction is hydrogen-ready,” said Pete Sheffield, Enbridge’s chief sustainability officer. Sempra’s Southern California Gas (SoCalGas) utility, which supplies gas to 22 million consumers, is working on pilot programs to test the fuel in its pipelines and see how a blend with natural gas affects the company’s pipes, as well as appliances and other equipment. The first project would blend hydrogen in a mostly residential area that SoCalGas can isolate from the rest of its distribution system, said Jawaad Malik, chief environmental officer. Virginia-based Dominion is testing a 5per cent hydrogen blend in a training facility in Utah and recently proposed a similar pilot in North Carolina, said Dominion spokesperson Aaron Ruby. Hydrogen is only considered clean if it is produced using low- or no-carbon emitting energy sources like biomass, nuclear, renewables or fossil fuels paired with carbon capture technology. “These types of proposals have not yet shown a path to a deeply decarbonized gas system,” said Julie McNamara, senior energy analyst for the Union of Concerned Scientists. Almost every gas turbine used to produce power can burn fuels containing about 5per cent to 10per cent hydrogen, said Jeff Goldmeer, General Electric’s emergent technologies director for decarbonization. That would cut carbon dioxide emissions from natural gas from the power sector, which has been one of the fastest growing sources of demand for gas. Roughly 36per cent of energy-related carbon emissions come from fossil fuel-fired electricity generation, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). A RISE IN PILOT PROGRAMS To reach net-zero emissions by 2050, global hydrogen use needs to expand to more than 200 million tonnes in 2030 from less than 90 million tonnes in 2020, according to the IEA. Reaching that goal will be difficult. Hydrogen production and transport costs more than natural gas, for now. Evercore ISI analysts said in a report this week that green hydrogen could become cost-competitive with less clean versions by 2030. GE has more than 75 turbines worldwide that use or have used fuels containing hydrogen, which have produced more than 450 terawatt-hours (TWh) of power. U.S. utility-scale facilities generated about 4,009 TWh of electricity in 2020, according to U.S. federal data. Technology will have to advance further to burn hydrogen as a viable fuel rather than just as a small percentage of a natural gas blend. “Clean hydrogen will be constrained in supply for the foreseeable future,” said McNamara of the Union of Concerned Scientists. “Blending it at a low level into a gas pipeline that should be transitioned to electrification is just not the right pathway to be taken today.
Green to Greener: GAIL eyes 1 GW renewable energy capacity, to set up biogas, ethanol plants
GAIL (India) Ltd will invest about Rs 5,000 crore to build a portfolio of at least 1 gigawatts of renewable energy and set up compressed biogas as well as ethanol plants as it steps up efforts to expand the business beyond natural gas. As part of a push to embrace cleaner forms of energy, GAIL will be laying pipeline infrastructure to connect consumption centers to gas sources and spend as much as Rs 4,000 crore on renewable energy, GAIL Chairman and Managing Director Manoj Jain said. “We are a business that is already eco-friendly – gas. And now we want to leverage our position to go greener in line with the vision of the government and the Prime Minister to cut carbon emissions and pollution,” he said. While electricity generated from solar energy or through wind power is the cleanest form of energy, converting municipal waste into compressed biogas will supplement the availability of cleaner fuel to automobiles and households. Also, it plans to set up ethanol units that can convert agriculture waste or sugarcane into less polluting fuel that can be doped in petrol, helping cut India’s import dependence, he said. While the renewable energy push would cost Rs 4,000 crore, setting up at least two compressed biogas plants and an ethanol factory would entail an investment of about Rs 800-1,000 crore, he said. India, which imports 85 per cent of its crude oil needs, is stepping up efforts to explore new forms of energy to clean up the skies and reduce dependence on imported fuels. “We have 120 MW of renewable energy capacity which we want to scale up to 1GW in next 3-4 years,” he said. GAIL will bid for a 400 MW solar power capacity being auctioned by SECI (formerly Solar Energy Corporation of India) in Rewa, Madhya Pradesh. The company had in 2019, won a bid for 874 MW operational wind power projects of IL&FS for Rs 4,800 crore. But IL&FS’ other partners used the first right of refusal to block GAIL’s bid, he said. “We are open to acquisitions and will look at any asset that makes commercial sense. We had almost got the IL&FS project,” he said. GAIL has signed up with state-run power gear maker BHEL for renewable energy foray. The tie-up looks to leverage the competitive strengths of both companies. GAIL will be the project developer and BHEL will be a project manager and EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) contractor. Jain said GAIL is setting up its first compressed biogas (CBG) plant in Ranchi at a cost of Rs 200-300 crore. The facility will produce five tonnes of CBG per day and approximately 25 tonnes of bio-manure using municipal waste. “The gas produced will be fed into the city gas network supplying CNG to automobiles and piped natural gas to households. This will help reduce pollution,” he said. GAIL has floated an expression of interest (EoI) seeking partners for the setting up of CBG plants. It also plans to set up an ethanol manufacturing unit, he said. The move by GAIL, which commands a 75 per cent market share in gas transmission and more than 50 per cent share in gas trading in India, is seen as part of the government’s vision to prepare for the energy transition process, under which the share of gas in the energy mix is sought to be raised to 15 per cent by 2030, from the current 6.2 per cent. GAIL recently signed an agreement with Carbon Clean Solutions Ltd. Under this, CCSL will initially build four CBG plants using its own funding, technology, and expertise. These plants will be based on 10-year CBG offtake agreements with GAIL or its associated companies. Depending on the success, the partnership will be scaled up to many more such plants. GAIL owns and operates a network of 13,340 km of high-pressure trunk pipelines. In addition, it is working on multiple pipeline projects, aggregating over 7,500 km. It owns a petrochemical plant at Pata in Uttar Pradesh and is setting up a new one in Maharashtra .