Fuel prices hold for a week despite firm global oil rates
Petrol and diesel prices remained unchanged for the seventh consecutive day on Thursday under the daily price revision mechanism followed by oil marketing companies, thus providing further relief to consumers. The pump price of petrol in Delhi, which fell to Rs 103.97 a litre at 6 a.m. last week on Thursday from the previous day’s level of Rs 110.04 a litre, remained at the same level. The diesel prices also remained unchanged in the capital at Rs 86.67 a litre. In the financial capital Mumbai, petrol continued to be priced at Rs 109.98 a litre and diesel Rs 94.14 a litre. Prices also remained static on Wednesday in Kolkata where the price of petrol reduced by Rs 5.82 to Rs 104.67 per litre and that of diesel by Rs 11.77 to Rs 89.79 per litre last week. Petrol price in Chennai also remained at Rs 101.40 per litre and diesel Rs 91.43 per litre. Across the country as well, the price of fuel largely remained unchanged on Thursday but the retail rates varied depending on the level of local taxes. After softening, the global crude prices have again touched a three-year high level of over $85 a barrel now. The rise in US inventory has pushed down crude prices a bit but OPEC+ decision on only gradual increase in production in December could push up crude prices further. This could put pressure on oil companies to revise fuel prices upwards again. Before price cuts and pause, diesel prices have increased 30 out of the last 48 days taking up its retail price by Rs 9.90 per litre in Delhi. Petrol prices have also risen on 28 of the previous 44 days taking up the pump price by Rs 8.85 per litre. Since January 1, petrol and diesel prices have risen by more than Rs 26 a litre before the duty cuts. The excise duty cut by the Centre last week was the first such exercise since the onset of Covid pandemic. In fact, the government had revised excise duty on petrol and diesel sharply in March and again in May last year to mobilise additional resources for Covid relief measures. The excise duty was raised by Rs 13 and Rs 16 per litre on petrol and diesel between March 2020 and May 2020 and was standing high at Rs 31.8 on diesel and Rs 32.9 per litre on petrol before finally the centre decided on duty cut.
Govt Wants ONGC To Identify Areas For Involving Pvt Sector: Oil Secretary
The government is pushing the public sector behemoth ONGC to involve private sector companies and service providers wherever possible to help raise oil and gas production, Petroleum Secretary Tarun Kapoor said Thursday. Kapoor’s comments came days after the second-highest ranked official in his ministry asked Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) to give away a 60 percent stake plus operating control in India’s largest oil and gas producing fields of Mumbai High and Bassein to foreign companies. “ONGC has to explore more so that it can discover more oil and gas reserves and bring them quickly to production to raise domestic output. The government is very clear that ONGC has to do more,” he told reporters here. India is 85 percent dependent on imports to meet its oil needs, and a way to cut the high import bill is to increase domestic production. “Naturally, when they do more work, there are areas where they can get experts in the fields… such as in deepsea,” Kapoor said. Discoveries that the company hasn’t been able to develop or areas that it hasn’t been able to explore are some of the examples where the ONGC can involve the private sector and foreign companies. ONGC, he said, should identify areas where it can get private sector expertise and efficiencies. These could range from technical collaboration to giving partially explored and undeveloped discoveries to private firms. The private sector can also be involved in enhancing production from existing fields. “We have only made suggestions to ONGC… the government cannot give directive to a Maharatna company. The ultimate decision has to be taken by the company board,” he said. Amar Nath, additional secretary (exploration) in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, on October 28 wrote a 3-page letter to ONGC Chairman and Managing Director Subhash Kumar, saying productivity of the Mumbai High and Bassein & Satellite (B&S) offshore assets under state-owned firm was low, and international partners should be invited and given 60 percent participating interest (PI) and operatorship. This is the second time since April that Nath, who is part of the ONGC management as the longest-serving government nominee director on its board and often considered a potential candidate to replace Kumar next year, has written an official letter, painting a poor picture of the company’s performance. According to the letter, a copy of which was reviewed by PTI, he said the redevelopment projects will raise recovery of the mature and continuously declining Mumbai High field from 28 percent to 32 percent, “which is quite low”. Mumbai High, which was discovered in 1974, and B&S that was put into production in 1988 are Oil and Natural Gas Corporation’s (ONGC) mainstay assets, contributing two-thirds of its current oil and gas production. Without these assets, the company will be left with only smaller fields. Nath had on April 1 written to Kumar to sell stake in producing oil fields such as to Ratna R-Series to private firms, get foreign partners in KG basin gas fields, monetise existing infrastructure, and hive off drilling and other services into a separate firm to raise production. The two letters by Nath are the third attempt by the oil ministry to get ONGC to privatise its oil and gas fields under the Modi government. In October 2017, the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons, the ministry’s technical arm, had identified 15 producing fields with a collective reserve of 791.2 million tonne of crude oil and 333.46 billion cubic meters of gas, for handing over to private firms in the hope that they would improve upon the baseline estimate and its extraction. A year later, as many as 149 small and marginal fields of ONGC were identified for private and foreign companies on the grounds that the state-owned firm should focus only on big ones. The first plan couldn’t go through because of strong opposition from ONGC, sources aware of the matter said. The second plan went to the Cabinet, which on February 19, 2019, decided to bid out 64 marginal fields of ONGC. But, that tender got a tepid response, they said, adding that ONGC was allowed to retain 49 fields on the condition that their performance will be strictly monitored for three years. Nath in both April 1 and October 28 letters stated that two years have elapsed since the Cabinet decision but ONGC is yet to initiate the process for partnerships. ONGC produced 20.2 million tonne of crude oil in the fiscal year ending March 31 (2020-21), down from 20.6 million tonne in the previous year and 21.1 million tonne in 2018-19. It produced 21.87 bcm of gas in 2020-21, down from 23.74 bcm in the previous year and 24.67 bcm in 2018-19.
IIT-G, Oil India sign pact to develop new technologies in energy sectors
The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Guwahati, and Oil India Ltd will collaborate for the development and introduction of new technologies in energy and related sectors, a release issued by the educational institution said on Friday. The partnership will also focus on cooperation in the transfer of existing technologies, knowledge upgradation and innovation partnership, training and skill development, and other areas of mutual agreement, it said. An MoU to seal the collaboration was inked between the two organisations on Thursday, with IIT Guwahati director professor T.G. Sitharam and Oil India executive director Sasanka Pratim Deka signing the agreement. “This MoU will facilitate a new path for exploring various opportunities in applied and translational research for the sustainable energy sector with Oil India. IIT Guwahati is among the few top institutions in India that are dedicated to developing state-of-the-art technologies and skilled manpower in the field of petroleum and its allied industries,” Sitharam said. He said oil and gas industries would benefit as it would lead to the development of indigenous technologies. Deka said Oil India would look forward to more collaborations with IIT Guwahati and this coming together of the two institutions would enhance the efficiency of the industry and contribute to greater profitability.
Pakistan expected to be hit by major gas crisis in winter
The Pakistan government has decided to continue gas supply to the power and fertiliser sectors, while domestic and industrial consumers will suffer shortages amid a major gas shortfall in the country during the winter season, Geo News reported. This decision was made by the Cabinet Committee on Energy (CCoE) during a meeting on Thursday which was chaired by Federal Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar. The CCOE decided supply of gas to “dedicated” consumers, including power and fertiliser plants, would remain stable, The News International reported. The power plants on SNGPL supply will be provided RLNG during 2021-22 with additional supply. The deficit of the power sector will be recouped through furnace oil. Any gas saved from captive power plants will be diverted towards export-oriented industries. Pakistan is expected to be hit by a major gas crisis this year like every year for several reasons, the Geo News report cited official sources as saying. One of the reasons is that local discoveries of gas have witnessed a dip, so the domestic gas reserves are depleting, the sources explained, adding that the local gas supply stood at 4,300 mmcfd a few years back but now it has depleted and stands at 3,300 mmcfd. The import of RLNG also faced snags and Pakistan used to add 1,200 mmcfd gas through RLNG a few years ago, but is now going to add just 1,000 mmcfd of gas. “There is a need to ascertain why two RLNG terminals could not be set up. If they were there, the country could have imported 1,200 mmcfd more gas through RLNG,” the official sources said.