Trafigura, PetroChina place lowest offers in Pakistan LNG tender
Trafigura and PetroChina International have placed the lowest offers in a tender by Pakistan LNG seeking five liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargoes for delivery in October and November, a tender document showed on Friday. Trafigura placed the lowest offers ranging from $19.8477 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) to $20.9677 per mmBtu for four of the cargoes to be delivered over Oct. 8-9, Oct. 23-24, Oct. 28-29 and Nov. 12-13. PetroChina offered the lowest price of $20.3888 for a cargo to be delivered over Nov. 6-7. Asian spot LNG prices are trading at their highest for this time of the year since at least 2010 as a hot summer has drawn down gas inventory levels around the world. It was not immediately clear if the tender has been awarded. Other companies which took part in the tender are Gunvor Singapore, Vitol Bahrain and Total Gas & Power.
Almost all Russian oil firms interested in energy resources supply to India, says minister
Almost all large Russian oil companies, such as Gazprom Neft, Rosneft, Novatek, Zarubezhneft, are interested in developing joint projects with Indian oil and gas firms in the field of production and supply of energy resources, Russian Energy Minister Nikolai Shulginov said at a working meeting with Indian Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum, the Russian Energy Ministry reported on Thursday. “We are interested in the implementation of current and promising joint projects, attracting Indian investments in the Russian oil and gas sector and expanding the distribution network with the participation of Russian companies in India. We see prospects of cooperation in all areas of the fuel and energy complex,” Shulginov said. The sixth Eastern Economic Forum organized by the Roscongress Foundation, is taking place in Vladivostok on September 2-4 in a hybrid format. The main topic of this year’s business program is “New Opportunities for the Far East in a Changing World.” TASS is the general information partner and the official photo hosting agency of the forum.
Cooking gas users may get to switch service providers
Cooking gas users may be able to seamlessly switch service providers soon just like they do with their mobile phone numbers, three people aware of the development said, with the government working to bring the household gas supply business of state-owned fuel marketers on the same platform. Under the plan, a liquified petroleum gas (LPG) connection from Indian Oil Corp. Ltd can be transferred to Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd (HPCL) and Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd (BPCL), or vice versa. The three fuel retailers are jointly developing software to bring their entire LPG business data on the same platform, the people cited above said on condition of anonymity. This assumes significance given that India has 291.1 million LPG customers as of 1 July. Presently, the fuel retailers allow their customers to choose the LPG distributor for cylinder refills and online transfer of the connection to another distributor serving in the same area of their own network. “A common database for LPG connection portability is being created,” said a senior government official, one of the three people cited above. While portability within a fuel retailer’s network is online and seamless, that’s not the case if one needs to switch to another provider. The process involves a physical surrender of the connection first and then going for a connection with the LPG distributor of another retailer, which at times becomes tedious and time-consuming. “In case of inter-company connection transfer, both parent and destination distributor get advance intimation about consumer’s transfer request with tracking options for customers. However, the customer needs to visit the parent distributorship for surrendering of LPG equipment as accounting of equipment and security deposit is involved,” the oil ministry said in a 24 June 2019 statement.
Wärtsilä looks to invest in hydrogen engines, energy storage in India
Energy and marine technology solutions provider Wärtsilä is now looking to diversify into newer fuels such as hydrogen, apart from providing grid-level energy storage solutions. Speaking with Business Standard, Sushil Purohit, President, Wartsila Energy and EVP, Wärtsilä Corporation, said post Covid, economies across the globe are looking at a decarbonised future and there will be upsurge in investment in renewable energy, storage and balancing technologies. In India since the 80s, Wärtsilä has delivered 250 power plants to India with a total output of over 3,500 MW. It also operates and manages 35 power plants (including Boiler Turbine Generation stations) with a total output of over 1,300 MW. As the country accelerates the renewable energy deployment, Purohit said grid-level energy storage is the need of time and they are in active discussions in India to deploy the same. Wärtsilä along with Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology LUT, a Finnish public university studied the prospect of a carbon neutral or 100 per cent renewable energy run power system in India by 2050. “This would require 4,000 Gw of renewable capacity. Along with it is needed a balancing capacity – both in form of energy storage and gas engines which would run on future green fuels. These two technologies are where Wärtsilä is a market leader,” said Purohit. He said the company is in discussions with the Load Despatch Centres and power distribution utilities (discoms) in India to explore integration of renewable energy. “India will see a business activity in the space of green fuel-based storage and balancing technologies 2030 onwards,” he said. For preparing power systems towards increased share of renewable energy in the grid, Purohit said storage should be part of the transmission assets at the grid level. “The grid needs to be balanced. So, a green fuel based quick start-up and energy storage is needed in the power system. These two needs to be incentivised so as to attract the interest of the private players in the segment,” he said. The company is in discussions with several stakeholders in India for grid-level balancing and storage tech, Purohit said, but did not disclose any names. India currently awards energy storage projects as part of solar and wind power projects. Few utilities such as Tata Power Delhi Distribution ltd has invested in standalone battery storage systems, in order to balance the grid as more green energy gets infused. Wärtsilä recently won a contract from Oil India ltd (OIL) to construct a 30 Mw power plant at the company’s bottling cum extraction facility in Assam. The power plant will operate with Wärtsilä’s W20V34SG gas engines running on natural gas fuel from OIL’s captive gas fields. The company also recently acquired Greensmith Energy Management Systems Inc., a market leader in grid-scale energy storage software and integrated solutions. This acquisition has enabled us to rapidly expand our footprint in the energy storage market globally and position us as a premier energy system integrator. Purohit said they are testing their power generation engines for using Hydrogen. “Our engines can currently run on up to 2 per cent hydrogen blend in the fuel. We are testing to increase the share of hydrogen in our engines further and run on 100 per cent in the future,” he said. In the hydrogen segment, the company would look at business prospects in both the energy and transport market. “We are the largest provider of engines to the Shipping sector. We are working on building engines which can run on 100 per cent green fuel, such as synthetic gas, methanol, ammonia etc,” he said, adding that they are working technologies and engines which will accelerate the decarbonisation of sea transportation.
ONGC evaluating stake buy in Russia’s Vostok Oil project
India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corp is evaluating the purchase of stake in Russia’s massive Vostok Oil project, a company official said on Thursday, as the two countries seek to deepen their economic ties in the energy sector. Vostok is one of Russia’s biggest oil projects, comparable in size with the exploration of West Siberia in the 1970s or the U.S. Bakken oil province over the past decade. “We are still in the evaluation stage … We are looking at it (Vostok Oil), it is a very large complex project,” A.K, Gupta, managing director of ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas investment arm of ONGC, told Reuters. He did not give any further details on the deal. Russian oil major Rosneft is in talks with several players about participation in Vostok, which according to initial estimates could require the investment of more than 10 trillion roubles ($137 billion). Global commodities trader Trafigura has a 10% stake in Vostok Oil and a consortium of traders Vitol and Mercantile & Maritime have shown interest in taking a 5% stake in the project. Indian Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, who is in Russia for an economic forum, met Russian Energy Minister Nikolai Shulginov and Rosneft chief Igor Sechin. The forum in the Russian Pacific port of Vladivostok was also attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin. “Look forward to further strengthening strategic cooperation across the entire value chain of the energy sector with Russia,” the Indian minister said on Twitter after meeting Shulginov. Gupta said Russia was a “preferred destination” for energy investment by India. ONGC Videsh owns 26% stake in Russia’s Vankor field and a 20% stake in Sakhalin-1 project. In 2009, it acquired Imperial Energy, an independent exploration and production company in Russia. Russia aims to begin shipping oil from the planned Vostok project in 2024 via the Northern Sea Route, an alternative to the Suez Canal which shortens travels to markets in Asia.
India’s gasoline demand seen hitting record as COVID curbs ease
India’s gasoline demand is set to hit a record this fiscal year, with consumption accelerating as more people hit the road for business and leisure travel after easing of COVID-19 curbs. Shunning trains, buses and planes, safety-conscious Indians are buying more cars and increasingly using personal vehicles to commute as they embark on ‘revenge travel’ – flocking to tourist destinations after months of restrictions, despite record high fuel prices. Annual passenger vehicle sales in India rose by 45 per cent to 264,442 units in July, driven by pent-up demand, according to data from the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers. The stronger-than-expected gasoline consumption growth could prompt Indian refiners to import the fuel or boost gasoil exports in coming months. Indian refineries are traditionally configured to maximise production of diesel, where demand is still below pre-COVID levels, hurt by an uneven economic recovery. [O/INDIA2] “We may have to import some quantity of petrol if momentum in demand continues,” said an official at an Indian state-run refiner, who declined to be identified as he is not authorised to speak to the media. “We cannot increase crude throughput as some refiners have high levels of diesel inventory and export margins for diesel are not attractive.” The expected rise in India’s gasoline imports could support Asian refiners’ margins for the fuel. The country, which has a refining surplus, has shunned gasoline imports since May and raised gasoil exports by a fifth in July from April, government data showed.
Puri says over Rs 1.5 lakh cr UPA-era oil bonds need to be repaid
Amid fuel prices continuing to remain stubbornly high despite international rates falling, Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Thursday said over Rs 1.5 lakh crore of oil bonds issued by the previous UPA government remains to be paid, limiting fiscal space and restricting financial freedom of oil firms. A day after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi launched a scathing attack on the government for raising cooking gas prices, Puri took to Twitter to blame the “rampant impunity and policy paralysis” of the UPA government. “In ‘India’s Lost Decade’ known for rampant impunity & policy paralysis, UPA Govt saddled future govts with Oil Bonds. More than Rs 1.5 lakh cr of these remain to be repaid, thus tying up crucial resources, limiting fiscal space & restricting financial freedom of OMCs,” he tweeted. Puri, a 1974 batch Indian Foreign Service officer who served as the Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations from 2009 to 2013, said the exploration and production (E&P) sector was “fund-starved”. “The important E&P sector was fund-starved. As a result, our import bill continues to be high. Nearly Rs 3.6 lakh cr profits of oil companies was instead used for price stabilisation by a remote controlled govt of ‘economic experts’ to hide behind a ‘All is Well’ smokescreen,” he tweeted. On Wednesday, Gandhi had attacked the government over the rising fuel prices saying Rs 23 lakh crore has been collected in the last seven years by increasing prices. His party rejected the oil bond burden theory, first floated by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, for not lowering the prices, saying the Rs 1.3 lakh crore are not even due for payment so far and the government had collected much more revenue in seven years from excise duty hikes. Last month, Sitharaman had ruled out a cut in excise duty on petrol and diesel to ease prices, saying payments in lieu of past subsidised fuel pose limitations. Petrol and diesel as well as cooking gas and kerosene were sold at subsidised rates during the previous Congress-led UPA government. Instead of paying for the subsidy to bring parity between the artificially suppressed retail selling price and the cost that had soared because of international rates crossing USD 100 per barrel, the then government issued oil bonds totalling Rs 1.34 lakh crore to the state-fuel retailers.