Malaysia’s Petronas says COVID-19 variants to keep oil demand uncertain
Malaysia’s state energy firm Petronas said on Tuesday that it anticipates recovery in oil demand from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic to remain fragile and uncertain in the next few years. The industry was optimistic about economic recovery but remained cautious and needed to be ready to face oil price volatility, Petronas said in its activity outlook report for 2022-2024. “The path towards sustained oil demand recovery remains fragile and uncertain due to the emergence of new COVID-19 variants that trigger fresh waves of lockdowns,” the custodian of Malaysia’s petroleum resources said. Oil prices slumped in November due to the new Omicron variant but have largely recovered and are up about 50per cent this year, supported by improved demand and supply cuts by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies. After 2024, Petronas forecast a positive outlook for drill rig activity and a steady outlook for fabrication of fixed structures and subsea facilities, as it continues efforts to monetise its oil and gas resources. Liquefied natural gas spot prices were expected to be volatile in the coming years due to weather patterns and potential policy changes that could alter supply-demand dynamics, it said. Petronas said many of its current oil and gas projects are expected to be for ready for hook-up and commissioning by 2023 and 2024. While many projects had to be deferred and rationalised due to the pandemic, those that survived are expected to resume and reach peak production only in 2025, it said. Petronas also said it is targeting domestic hydrogen production from 2024, starting with so-called blue hydrogen, which uses natural gas as a feedstock, and then moving to green hydrogen, which uses water.
BPCL sale unlikely this fiscal, Modi govt will be Rs 600 billion short of disinvestment target
The Narendra Modi government is expected to miss its 2021-22 disinvestment target of Rs 1750 billion by about Rs 600 billion as the privatisation of the Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) is not likely to go through before the financial year ends. In the last fiscal, 2020-21, the government set a disinvestment target of Rs 2100 billion in the Union Budget, and missed it by a whopping Rs 1780 billion. The government had set an ambitious target of Rs 1750 billion in the Union Budget 2021-22, with over a third of the receipts targeted from the listing (of shares for part sale of the government’s stake) of Life Insurance Corporation and privatisation of BPCL. Experts have estimated that listing of LIC itself is likely to fetch the government around Rs 1000 billion. The target is a mix of receipts from the privatisation of some public sector enterprises and from the sale of the government’s minority stake in other PSUs. While the disinvestment department has assured that the initial public offer of LIC would take place before 31 March 2022, the sale of BPCL, where the government is to sell its entire stake of 52.98 per cent, is in limbo as the bidders for the company have not been able to find partners who can buy the company with them. “BPCL (sale) now looks highly unlikely since we are left with only three months and there has been no movement on the stake sale,” a government official told ThePrint on the condition of anonymity. The rest of the companies listed in the Budget for privatisation included Shipping Corporation of India, Air India, Neelachal Ispat Nigam Limited, Container Corporation of India, IDBI Bank, BEML Limited and Pawan Hans, among others. The Air India transaction has been successfully concluded, but the government is yet to completely hand over the airline to Talace Private Ltd, a subsidiary of Tata Sons. According to the official, the government is in the final stages of concluding the sale of Shipping Corporation of India and Neelachal Ispat. Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey recently said the government has received financial bids for Pawan Hans and Neelachal Ispat, and now the process of their privatisation has moved to its concluding stage. The list of companies to be privatised in 2021-22 also included IDBI Bank. Other than this, the government was also likely to privatise two state-owned banks and one insurance company. However, the money from the sale of these entities was not part of the disinvestment target budgeted for the current financial year. Fiscal deficit target may be hit So far, the sale of stakes in state-owned firms has fetched the government around Rs 93.30 billion. This amount does not include the Rs 27 billion it will receive from Air India and another Rs 2.10 billion from the sale of Central Electronics. With the likely shortfall of Rs 600 billion in the disinvestment receipts, the government’s fiscal deficit target could take a hit of 0.3 per cent of the GDP. Chief Economic Adviser Krishnamurthy Subramanian, in his last press conference before demitting office, had said that high growth in tax revenue in the current year will be able to make up for the revenue shortfall from disinvestment. For 2021-22, the government has fixed a fiscal deficit target of 6.8 per cent of the GDP. Fiscal deficit is defined as the gap between revenue and expenditure of the government, where the latter is higher than the former.
Govt announced Pankaj Jain as New Petroleum Secretary
Appointments Committee of the Cabinet approved the Pankaj Jain lAS, as the new Secretary under Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas. This restructuring process took place on Monday when Government announced the other major official’s reshuffle. Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC), Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Department of Personnel and Training approved many posts includes most of the IAS. Jain is currently serving as the Additional Secretary under the Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance. He is a 1990 batch IAS officer, and a Bachelor’s degree holder from Shri Ram College of Commerce, and completed his MBA from FMS Delhi. Apart from this, he is also an Associate of the Institute of Cost Accountants of India. Earlier he has worked for the Assam and Meghalaya Governments. This encompasses being District Magistrate at Shillong and Tura along with assignments in the Secretariat and State Corporations dealing with Power, Planning, Information Technology, Livelihood Promotion, and Industries as well as being Director with the Government of India in the Ministry of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises. However his work does not end here he also worked with the British International Aid Agency – the Department for International Development (DFID) as Governance Advisor and Senior Program Manager.
AG&P Pratham Kicks-Off Construction of Its Second Liquefied and Compressed Natural Gas (LCNG) Station in Andhra Pradesh
AG&P Pratham in India, the City Gas Distribution (CGD) arm of Singapore-based AG&P Group, a leading downstream LNG platform and infrastructure development company, held a groundbreaking ceremony last week to celebrate the start of construction for its Liquefied Compressed Natural Gas (LCNG) station in Andhra Pradesh. The AG&P Pratham LCNG station is the second in the state and third in South India. Located at YSR Kadapa district, the station comprises of two storage tanks with capacity of 56 KL of LNG storage and gasification. The LCNG station will provide uninterrupted access of natural gas to commercial, industrial, and residential customers and supply Compress Natural Gas (CNG) to help cars, taxis, and buses transition seamlessly to run on clean fuel in the region. AG&P Pratham has two CNG stations in operation currently in the YSR Kadapa District with 10 more to be commissioned by March 2022. In addition, AG&P Pratham is laying pipelines in YSR Kadapa town and industrial estate Putlampalli IDA to deliver Piped Natural Gas (PNG) directly into thousands of homes, businesses, and factories. “The construction of AG&P Pratham’s wholly-owned LCNG station in Andhra Pradesh is an important milestone in the roll-out of vital gas networks being developed in India. It is in lockstep with the country’s commitment to achieve 15% of natural gas in its primary energy mix by 2030. Over the next eight years, we will be building nine LCNG Stations and 134 CNG stations in YSR Kadapa and Anantapur, connecting factories, small-mid-large scale companies, over 10,00,000 households and the transport sector, ensuring reliable supply of this safe, competitive and eco-friendly fuel. Upon its commissioning, Andhra Pradesh will have access to natural gas that will accelerate industrialization, create jobs, reduce pollution and foster a healthier environment, improving the quality of lives for many Indians in the state,” said Mr. Chiradeep Dutta, Chief Operations Officer, AG&P Pratham.