With crude fluctuating around $70 a barrel-mark, OMCs keep fuel rates static
The fluctuation of global oil prices around the lower end of $70 a barrel-mark has ensured relief for the Indian fuel consumers who have been spared of any hike in petrol and diesel prices by the Oil marketing companies (OMC). Still in the wait and watch mode, OMCs decided to keep fuel prices static on Friday, the third consecutive day of no price revision. Accordingly, in the national capital, petrol continued to be sold for Rs 101.49 per litre and diesel Rs 88.92 a litre. Across the country as well fuel prices remained unchanged on Friday .
Indian Oil expands JV with Malaysia’s Petronas to focus on LNG plants
Indian Oil Corp is expanding its joint venture with Malaysia’s state-run Petronas to include building liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals, fuel retailing and gas distribution, Chairman S.M. Vaidya said on Friday. IOC, the country’s top fuel retailer, imports some liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) through IndianOil Petronas Pvt Ltd, its equal joint venture with the Malaysian firm. The state-run firm is keen to tie up with global firms, as it attempts to strengthen its grip in new cleaner energy areas such as hydrogen. “We are pursuing more such win-win associations with respective segment leaders to explore newer avenues of growth and gain competitive advantage in the future,” Vaidya said at the annual shareholders meet. IOC is investing 1 trillion Indian rupees ($13.49 billion) to raise its refining capacity by 25 million tonnes a year in next 2-5 year, Vaidya said, adding his company aims to maximise yields of chemical products.
Oil and gas rig count rises for 13th month in a row -Baker Hughes
U.S. energy firms this week added oil and natural gas rigs for a fourth week, resulting in the 13th monthly increase in a row, even as a major storm approaches the Gulf of Mexico. The combined oil and gas rig count, an early indicator of future output, rose five in the week to Aug. 27 to 508, its highest since April 2020, energy services firm Baker Hughes Co said in its closely followed report on Friday. The total rig count has doubled, or risen by 254 rigs, over this time last year. For the month, drillers added 20 oil and gas rigs, putting the count up for 13 months in a row for the first time since July 2017. U.S. oil rigs rose five to 410 this week, their highest since April 2020, while gas rigs were unchanged at 97. In August, drillers added 25 oil rigs, the most in a month since January, putting the oil rig count up for 12 months in a row for the first time since July 2017. The gas rig count, meanwhile, declined by six, its first monthly decline since October 2020. U.S. crude futures gained over 10% this week to about $69 a barrel on Friday, putting the contract on track for its biggest weekly gain since June 2020 ahead of the storm. U.S. oil and gas companies on Friday raced to complete evacuations from offshore Gulf of Mexico platforms as Tropical Storm Ida advanced toward fields that provide 17% of the nation’s oil production and about 5% of dry natural gas output. Ida is forecast to become a major hurricane by early Sunday. Enverus, a provider of energy data with its own closely watched rig count, said there were 25 rigs running in the Gulf of Mexico, up 47% year-over-year. Enverus said “that number is likely to temporarily dip in the next week” with the hurricane expected to hit the area, noting the most active operators in the Gulf are units of Royal Dutch Shell PLC with seven rigs, Chevron Corp with four and BP PLC with two.
India plans to emerge as a global leader in green hydrogen: Power Minister R K Singh
India plans to emerge as a global leader in green hydrogen and the country is proposing to mandate using green hydrogen in fertilizer and in refining, power minister R K Singh has told the US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate (SPEC) John Kerry. In a telephonic conversation last evening, Singh also informed Kerry that India will invite bids for green hydrogen in the next 3-4 months to encourage viable usage of hydrogen as a fuel, according to a power ministry statement. India is looking at bids for 4,000 MW of electrolysers capacity, it stated. As per the statement, Kerry has congratulated India on achievements in renewable energy on reaching 146GW Renewables with 63 GW under construction and 25 GW under bids. “Union Minister R K Singh has informed Mr Kerry about India’s plan to emerge as a global leader in green hydrogen. India is proposing to mandate using green hydrogen in fertilizer and in refining. This is part of the government’s commitment towards replacing grey hydrogen with green hydrogen,” the statement said. Singh underlined to the US Presidential envoy that Prime Minister Narendra Modi places the highest importance on the environment. He suggested to him that India and the USA could work together in the areas of innovations for power and technology, pointing out the requirement of bringing down the cost of storage of renewable power. The minister informed Kerry about the recent milestone the country had achieved by crossing 100 GW in Installed solar and wind capacity. “If we add Hydro capacity also, the total installed renewable capacity is 147 GW. Further, 63 GW of renewable capacity is under construction which makes India one of the fastest growing in terms of renewable capacity addition,” it stated. Singh also informed Kerry that the National Hydrogen Energy Mission has been launched to enable cost competitive green hydrogen production. He added that India would be conducting competitive bids for green hydrogen in the next 3-4 months to pave the road for viable usage of hydrogen as a fuel. The other countries need to come up with more electrolyser plants to bring down the costs. It was suggested that India and the USA should work at setting up an alternate supply chain for lithium in order to secure input material for battery energy storage.
Cairn operated Mangala oil field in Barmer completes 12 years of output
Discovered in 2004 as the largest offshore crude oil reserve in the country, the prolific Mangala oil field in Barmer completed 12 years of production. Since first oil was drilled out on August 29, 2009, Mangala field has produced more than 473 mmstb (million stock tank barrels) as on July 2021. The oil fields operated by Cairn Oil & Gas today contributes over 25% to India’s domestic crude oil production. Production from Mangala, and its sister fields Bhagyam and Aishwariya, has contributed $19 billion to the national and state exchequer as on 2021-21, the company said in a statement. The cumulative production from the block has crossed 600 mmboe (million barrel of oil equivalent), playing a significant role in fulfilling the country’s energy demands. Harish Choudhary, state revenue minister, said, “Since the beginning of oil and gas exploration and production by Cairn, there has been visible socio-economic transformation in the landscape of western Rajasthan. The region now produces over 150,000 barrels of crude oil every day.” Going forward, Cairn Oil & Gas has set an ambitious target of contributing 50% of India’s domestic crude oil production. For this, the Rajasthan block and Mangala particularly, will continue to play a driving role. Since the discovery of first oil in 2009, the Mangala field has lived up to its name to truly become auspicious for the country’s energy needs. We have followed a path of continuous innovation, research, and adoption of new technology to maintain production levels,” said Prachur Sah, deputy CEO, Cairn Oil & Gas. The field is home to the world’s largest Alkaline Surfactant Polymer (ASP) flood project and the Mangala pipeline, the world’s longest continuously heated and insulated pipeline that runs from the fields of Rajasthan to refineries in Gujarat, covering 705 km. Additionally, it is home to a full-field Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) polymer project that is also the largest of its kind in the world.
Oil mixed as Hurricane Ida slams U.S. crude hub, Louisiana
Oil prices pared early gains on Monday, off more than three-week highs reached earlier in the session as a powerful hurricane ploughing through the Gulf of Mexico https://www.reuters.com/world/us/gulf-coast-ports-close-loop-halts-oil-deliveries-ahead-hurricane-ida-2021-08-29 forced shutdowns and evacuations of hundreds of offshore oil platforms. U.S. gasoline prices rose more than 3 per cent as power outages added to refinery closures on the Gulf coast. Brent was up 27 cents or 0.4 per cent at $72.97 a barrel by 0337 GMT. It rose more than 11 per cent last week in anticipation of disruptions to oil production from Ida. U.S. oil turned negative and was down by 6 cents at $68.68 a barrel, having jumped a little over 10 per cent over last week. The benchmarks hit highs not seen since early August, $73.69 and $69.64, respectively, earlier in the session, as Ida slammed into the coast near Port Fourchon, Louisiana, a hub of the Gulf’s offshore energy industry. “It’s still early days to know the full impact of Hurricane Ida,” said Vivek Dhar, commodities analyst at Commonweath Bank of Australia. “Oil products, like gasoline and diesel, are likely to see prices rise more acutely from refinery outages, especially if there are difficulties in bringing refineries and pipelines back online,” he added. PBF Energy’s 190,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) refinery in Chalmette, Louisiana, has been shut down by a power outage caused by Ida, sources told Reuters. Marathon Petroleum Corp shut its 578,000 bpd in Garyville, Louisiana, as the storm approached. Colonial Pipeline Co, the operator of the largest petroleum products pipeline in the United States, said on Sunday it would temporarily halt fuel deliveries from Houston to Greensboro, North Carolina due to Ida.
Sinopec plans to spend $4.6 bln on hydrogen energy by 2025
China’s Sinopec Corp plans to spend 30 billion yuan ($4.6 billion) on hydrogen energy by 2025, as the state oil and gas major pivots to natural gas and hydrogen, with the aim of becoming carbon neutral by 2050. The top Asian refiner said on Monday it plans to become China’s largest player to use hydrogen as transportation fuel, targeting an annual capacity of 200,000 tonnes of hydrogen refuelling by 2025. “Sinopec will expand forcefully into making hydrogen from renewable energy, and zero in on hydrogen for transportation fuel and using green hydrogen for refining,” acting Chairman Ma Yongsheng said. The company aims to produce more than 1 million tonnes of hydrogen using renewable energy between 2021 and 2025, as well as add 400 megawatts of solar power generation capacity for supplying electricity to charge vehicles. Sinopec has so far built 20 hydrogen filling stations, with another 60 under construction or in the planning and approval stage. The company, which reported its highest first-half net profit since 2018 on rebounding oil and gas prices as well as steady domestic fuel demand, expects China’s natural gas demand to maintain double-digit growth over the next three years. Gas consumption is expected to rise 13.3% in 2021, helped by a strong economic recovery and Beijing’s continued push to replace coal with lower-carbon gas, Ma said. Like state-run peers PetroChina and CNOOC Ltd that are prioritising natural gas development over oil, Sinopec plans to boost its gas output by 13.5% in the second half of this year from a year earlier, compared with a 13.7% growth in the first six months.
Petroleum minister mentions Vizag as state’s capital, triggers row
The Centre’s response in the recently concluded Parliament session regarding fuel prices has kicked up a new controversy in the state as it mentioned Visakhapatnam as AP’s capital city. Petroleum and natural gas minister Hardeep Singh Puri provided details of taxes levied by different states on petrol and diesel while replying to a question raised by Lok Sabha members Kumbakudi Sudhakaran and Pradyut Bordoloi. In a detailed response to the starred question on impact of rising fuel prices, the minister had enclosed the list of all the states and their capital cities to give the break-up of state taxes on the fuels. Although the minister made an attempt to provide comprehensive information about taxes imposed by the Centre and states on fuels which resulted in the steep increase in the cost of petrol and diesel, the reference about AP’s capital city has led to a heated debate among rival political parties in the state. The minister provided the prices of fuels in ‘AP capital’ Vizag along with capital cities of other states in Lok Sabha.
Energy companies race to complete Gulf of Mexico evacuations
U.S. oil and gas companies on Friday raced to complete evacuations from offshore Gulf of Mexico platforms as Tropical Storm Ida advanced toward oilfields that provide 17% of the nation’s oil production. The storm intensified into a hurricane on Friday with 75 mile per hour (120 kph) winds as it moved through the Caribbean Sea, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC). It forecast Ida will become a major hurricane, packing winds of at least 111 mph (178 kph), by early Sunday. Top Gulf of Mexico oil producer Royal Dutch Shell Plc said it suspended production at seven offshore platforms and BP Plc stopped work at four platforms. Both are continuing to evacuate workers, the companies said. Chevron Corp. on Friday said it would shut-in production at its Gulf of Mexico platforms and evacuate all associated personnel. BHP and Equinor earlier pulled workers from offshore facilities, spokespeople said. Oil companies had shut 59% of their Gulf oil production and 49% of natural gas output as of Friday, according to the U.S. offshore regulator. A total of 90 offshore facilities were evacuated and 11 drilling vessels moved out of harm’s way. Gasoline producer Phillips 66 is preparing slow throughput and may idle a processing plant at the tip of Louisiana’s coast, said people familiar with the matter. A spokesperson declined to comment. Oil prices rose nearly 2% on Friday and were on track to post big gains for the week on worries over supply disruptions. U.S. Gulf Coast gasoline prices also climbed this week because of concerns about the storm, traders said. Over 45% of U.S. refining capacity lies along the Gulf Coast. Louisiana’s governor called on residents to prepare for a major storm, and two coastal communities on Friday asked residents to move to higher ground. Five storms made landfall in Louisiana last year, causing billions of dollars in damage. “This could be comparable to hurricanes Laura and Harvey, as far as intensity goes,” said Joe Bastardi, chief forecaster with Weatherbell Analytics, referring to two hurricanes with winds of at least 130 mph (209 kph). “In the worst-case scenario it could go as high as a category 5,” he said.
IGL hikes CNG price by 90 Paisa in city; PNG rates up too
Indraprastha Gas Ltd, the sole supplier of natural gas in the NCR, has raised CNG price by 90 paise to Rs 45.20 per kg and PNG price by Rs 1.25 to Rs 30.91 per unit (SCM) from Sunday, stretching household budgets already bearing the burden of high petrol and diesel prices. The company said prices have been raised to cover the increase in input costs. The company has been forced to service CNG and PNG consumers with imported gas, which costs eight times more than domestic gas, because of rising demand. “While sales volumes have increased substantially, the domestic gas allocation has remained constant due to lower average volumes of previous months,” the company said. After the revision, CNG costs Rs 50.90 per kg and PNG Rs 30.86 per unit in Noida, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad. In Gurgaon, PNG costs Rs.29.10 per unit. In Kaithal, CNG costs Rs.52.30 per kg. In Karnal, CNG costs Rs 52.30 per kg and PNG Rs.29.71 per unit. In Muzzaffarnagar, Meerut and Shamli, CNG sells for Rs.58.15 per kg and PNG Rs. 33.92 per unit.