India’s longest drone flight conducted in Haryana for Hindustan Petroleum
A robotics and drone company has claimed that it has conducted the longest drone flight of 51 km in India to survey the pipeline of the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) in Haryana. Omnipresent Robot Technologies Founder and CEO Aakash Sinha told PTI that the 51 km-long flight of Omni-Hansa V5 took place on November 3. “I believe the previous longest drone flight in India was of 42 km,” he said. The entire flight — from take off to landing — was fully autonomous, which means it was on auto-pilot, he said. “We had a tracker mechanism on the drone. We could track it over our 4G network with our tracker,” he noted. HPCL wants Omnipresent to extend the range of Omni Hansa V5 to 100-200 km, he said. Omni Hansa V5 can take off and land like a helicopter so it does not need a runway. However, once it is in air, it flies like a plane, Sinha stated. This drone is called hybrid fixed-wing VTOL (vertical take off and landing) drone, he explained. “We successfully completed India’s longest drone flight. We flew the drone for 51 km for one of our pipeline clients HPCL. It was a BVLOS (beyond visual line of sight) flight. This is a record in India,” he claimed. He said the flight took place to survey the pipeline of HPCL that runs between Delhi and Haryana. “It (pipeline) starts from Bahadurgarh (in Haryana),” he added. Officials of HPCL were also present during the flight demonstration, he stated. The flight went up to the height of maximum 400 feet, as permitted by the rules of aviation regulator DGCA. Sinha said Omnipresent has registered 100 per cent growth in last one year and it is expected to grow three to five times in the next 3-4 years. The company aims to reach the target of ₹10 billion revenue in the next four years, he added. Currently, the company is also working with Indian e-commerce giants that want to deploy drones for delivering items.
Petrobangla to amend Model PSC further to attract IOCs in offshore gas exploration
State-owned hydrocarbon corporation Petrobangla has moved to further amend the Model Production Sharing Contract (PSC) 2019 in order to attract international oil companies (IOCs) amid the hike in fuel prices in the international market. The principal upstream energy body is going to appoint an experienced foreign consultant to draw the amendments that would convince the IOCs to invest in Bangladesh’s offshore gas fields. “We have already sought expressions of interest (EOI) from interested parties to choose a consultant for the job,” Shahnewaz Parvez, general manager (Contract) of Petrobangla, told UNB. He informed that November 21 has been set as the deadline to submit the EIO by the interested bidders. Official sources said the recent excessive hike in petroleum fuel, especially that of liquefied natural gas (LNG) has prompted the government to go for further amending the existing PSC to attract the IOCs to invest in Bangladesh’s offshore gas blocks. The country has now a total of 48 blocks of which 26 are located in offshore areas and 22 onshore. Of the 26 offshore blocks, 11 are located in shallow sea (SS) water while 15 are located in deep sea (DS) water areas. Of these, 24 offshore gas blocks remained open for IOCs while two blocks —SS-04 and SS-09—are under contract with a joint venture of ONGC Videsh Ltd and Oil India Ltd where drilling works have recently started. Official sources said that the government had amended the Model PSC last in mid of 2019 raising the gas price for IOC to $5.5 per thousand cubic feet (MCF) for shallow water blocks and $7.25 per MCF for deep sea blocks from below $5 per MCF. There was a target to invite international bidding in March 2020 for exploration in offshore areas, which was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic that emerged at exactly the same time. “The recent upward trend in oil and gas prices has pushed the policymakers to further raise the gas price by introducing much more flexibility and incentives including keeping the export option open in the PSC”, said another Petrobangla official. He dropped an indication that gas price might be increased up to $7.25 per MCF for shallow sea blocks while $8.5 per MCF for deep sea blocks considering the upward global trend in petroleum price. He mentioned that the government had to import LNG at $36 per MMBtu while it was just below $10 early this year. Recently, the World Bank also made a prediction that the petroleum price might not see any fall until the end of 2022. Under a Model PSC, normally, if any IOC discovers gas, it gets 40% stake while the government obtains the remaining 60%. The government also buys the IOC’s gas at a certain price. So, if the gas price is raised, IOCs feel encouraged to invest in exploration works, said the Petrobangla officials. They said this is the first time, at least a 15-year experienced foreign firm will be hired to help the government to prepare the amendments in the PSC as foreign companies can give best suggestions as to which kind of incentives should be offered to attract IOCs. Officials said the Energy and Mineral Resources Division had instructed Petrobangla to hire such a consultant in February this year. But the negligence of some top officials delayed the work. They said Petrobangla now plans to complete the appointment of consultants within the next two months and receive their report by April next year. It hopes to complete the amendments by May and invite international bidding for IOCs in June next year in order to start exploration works before the end of 2022. Officials said that the foreign contractor, which was awarded a contract to conduct a multi-client seismic survey in the offshore sea blocks, has also suggested updating the Model PSC to attract IOCs in the changed scenario in the global petroleum market. Bangladesh’s offshore area remained unexplored despite it had settled its dispute with neighbouring Myanmar and India over the maritime boundary almost eight years ago. It has had no success in the exploration of oil and gas in its offshore areas located within its maritime boundary, said an energy expert wishing not to be named.
Pakistan takes costliest ever LNG to avert gas crisis
Pakistan accepted an LNG cargo at the highest-ever price of $30.6 per Million British Thermal Units (mmbtu) from Qatar Petroleum on the grounds of averting a possible gas crisis in the upcoming winter season, Dawn reported. The Pakistan LNG Limited (PLL) had floated emergency bids for two cargoes to be supplied in November, as the firms involved, Gunvor and ENI, had defaulted on their commitments. The PLL has short- and long-term agreements with Gunvor and the ENI for one LNG cargo each every month, but both suppliers refused to honour their part of the agreements. As a result, the state-owned firm had to call a tender on emergency basis for two LNG cargoes for the months of December and January, the Dawn news report said. For the delivery in the last week of the current month, November 26-27, the lowest tender was filed by Qatar Petroleum Trading at $30.65 per mmbtu, followed by Total Energies at $30.96 and Vitol Bahrain at $31.05 per mmbtu. Sources in the Petroleum Division said the first tender for supply on November 19-20 was scrapped as the country was facing gas shortage in December. Therefore, the lowest bidder for the supply on November 26-27 was Qatar Petroleum at $30.65 per mmbtu, as re-gasification and supply of LNG into the system would be done in December, the sources added. The PLL has been facing criticism for lacking proper strategies and ensuring LNG supplies when its prices were low in the international market. At the same time the state-owned entities had restricted the private sector from importing LNG as it could challenge the monopoly enjoyed by the public sector, the report said.