Indian Oil Corp eyes the carbon capture opportunity for clean hydrogen production
Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) is looking to clean-up operations at its Gujarat oil refinery with carbon capture and utilisation technology that could capture almost 700,000 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions annually from its steam methane reforming (SMR) based hydrogen generation unit. Dastur International and Dastur Energy have joined forces to bring what could be India’s largest carbon capture and utilisation project to life as a way of decarbonising IOCL’s operations and support the production of clean hydrogen, with support of a United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) grant. Once captured, it is believed some of the captured CO2 will be liquified and purified to 99.9% for supply to food and beverage customers. That being said, the majority of the gas will be used at the Oil and Natural Gas Commission’s (ONGC) Gandhar oilfields for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) from its manufacturing oil wells. The carbon capture system set to be deployed at the Indian refinery has been designed by Dastur and will provide IOCL with an integration solution across the carbon value chain, enabling industrial-scale carbon capture and disposition. At this point in time, a successful Techno-Economic Feasibility study has been carried out. Shri SSV Ramakumar, Director of R&D and Board Member of IOCL, said, “The project and Dastur’s work provide a blueprint for IOCL and ONGC to pursue the ambitious goal of combining industrial-scale carbon capture with CO2 EOR in India.” “Dastur and its partners evaluated different CO2 sources and carbon capture technologies from multiple vendors to engineer a techno-economically feasible solution that we can implement within the constraints and challenges of a large and complex operating refinery. The novel use of advanced gas processing to provide an extremely competitive cost of carbon capture bodes well for the future success of the project.” Atanu Mukherjee, President and CEO of Dastur, added, “I want to thank IOCL and our partners for their contribution in achieving a globally competitive cost of CO2 capture, including opex and capex in this design and charting the path forward for the first industrial-scale CCUS project in India.” “Carbon capture and its effective utilisation is a central building block for enabling the future transition to net zero. We are committed to supporting our clients worldwide in implementing effective energy transition plans, whether it be at North America’s first carbon capture project at the blast furnaces at Cleveland-Cliffs’ Burns Harbour steel plant or a Middle East oil major’s recent plan to capture multi-million tonnes of CO2 for large scale EOR.
Indian Crude Oil Price Up For Two Straight Days, Even As Political Blame Game Intensifies
The Indian crude oil basket rose to nearly $103 per barrel on Wednesday, up for the second straight day after falling below $100 a barrel early this week, even as the political blame game on domestic fuel rates intensified. In what has been a political potboiler, fuel rates have risen sharply since March 22 as global crude costs have jumped because of the Russia-Ukraine crisis distorting supply chains which were already disrupted by the pandemic and were just about getting streamlined. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged a cut to the value-added tax (VAT) on petrol and diesel prices, which state governments set, to relieve high fuel rates, many states – especially those ruled by opposition parties rejected that request. Instead, they urged the Modi government to cut the cess, which the centre levies. Beyond that political debate, in the international markets, the price of the Indian crude oil basket jumped to $102.98 per barrel at an exchange rate of Rs 76.64 against the dollar on Wednesday, according to the latest report from the Petroleum Ministry’s Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell’s (PPAC) released on Thursday. That price had fallen below the $100-mark on Monday, but it bounced back above that level on Tuesday to $100.2 per barrel. Indeed , the PPAC had reported India’s crude oil basket price eased to $99.17 per barrel on Monday from a high above $100 in the previous week. That see-saw in prices reflects the volatile trades in the global crude markets, which have been whiplashed between supply and demand dynamics but have primarily held above the $100-a-barrel-mark.
Subramanian Swamy attacks the Modi government for buying Russian crude oil with ‘Bankrupt Govt’ jibe
BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy has attacked the Centre’s Narendra Modi government for buying cheap Russian crude oil, calling his own party’s government’s ‘bankrupt.’ Reacting to a newspaper report on How Vladimir Putin’s war ended Narendra Modi’s cheap natural gas dream, Swamy wrote, “Breaking International Humanitarian law of Democratic nations, Modi Govt has bought Russian crude, paying in rupees and using the margin saved as part of revenue of Govt.. Bankrupt Govt!!” This was after a user asked him why prices of petrol were continuing to skyrocket despite Modi choosing to buy cheap Russian crude oil. Swamy said that ‘losing the war in Ukraine and the use of n weapons will make Russia much like the Thar Desert.’ Earlier this month, US president Joe Biden had reportedly told Modi that increasing oil imports from Russia was not in India’s interest. According to White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, Biden conveyed his sentiments during his virtual talks with Modi saying that the US ‘stands ready to help India diversify its energy imports, which would make it less reliant on Russia.’ “The president has made clear that he does not believe it’s in India’s interest to accelerate or increase imports of Russian energy and other commodities,” Psaki was quoted as saying. Modi had blamed the non-BJP states in India for not reducing VAT on petrol and diesel despite the excise duty cut by the Centre last November. This, he had said was ‘injustice’ to the people since the benefits were not being transferred to them. Modi had also blamed the Russian invasion of Ukraine for the rising fuel prices in India. “The situation of war which has arisen, has affected the supply chain, and in such an environment, the challenges are increasing day by day,” Modi had said during his meeting with chief ministers of various states in the country.
The UK Could Give Up Russian Gas Sooner Than Thought
In the week when Gazprom finally did what Europe was afraid it would do and started cutting off gas supplies to countries unwilling to pay for them in rubles, Russian gas reliance has really hit the spotlight. And at least one country in Europe believes it can eliminate its dependence on it sooner than previously believed. Bloomberg reported earlier this week that the UK could stop importing Russian natural gas before this year’s end. Citing an unnamed source familiar with the government’s plans, the report noted that Russian gas exports to the UK were already a slim enough portion of total gas imports to make the phase-out possible. Details on how exactly the government planned to eliminate these imports were not divulged, but given the fact that Russian gas last year accounted for just 4 percent of total UK gas imports, replacing Russia with another supplier will be nowhere near as challenging as the same exercise would be for Germany. What’s more, Russian LNG cargos—the only form of Russian gas that the UK imports—arriving in the country have fallen further since the start of this year, reinforcing Downing Street’s conviction that the UK can get rid of Russian gas with almost no hassle. This puts the UK in a comfortable enough virtue-signaling position, from which it can urge its EU allies to reduce their own reliance on Russian gas. These allies, however, will have a harder time following in the UK’s footsteps, with Germany being the most notoriously gas-dependent European economy. The EU has been discussing energy embargos on Russia for weeks now and has so far only managed to agree on a coal import ban, which will enter into effect from August. This will allow utilities to stock up on the fossil fuel in the meantime. A gas embargo has also been on the table, but several EU members have voiced strong opposition to the idea. In Germany, businesses and trade unions have joined forces to advise against such an embargo, noting it would devastate the energy-intensive German economy. An oil embargo is an equally hard sell for Germany. Europe, as a whole, imports some 40 percent of the gas it consumes from Russia. Last year, this amounted to around 155 billion cubic meters. This year, because of the war in Ukraine, the EU has stated it will aim to reduce its intake of Russian gas by two-thirds by the end of the year, using a variety of measures, including a switch to LNG, energy conservation, a buildout in renewables, and increasing the use of coal for power generation. Meanwhile, however, gas prices soared again this week after Gazprom cut off gas deliveries to Poland and Bulgaria. The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has called on European energy traders not to pay for Russian gas in rubles. Germany’s Uniper, however, has said it had no problem doing just that. Hungary and Austria have also said they would pay for Russian gas in rubles. The asynchrony between Brussels and the business world has once again highlighted the drawbacks of energy dependence and the importance of local supply. The UK’s relative ease of reducing Russian oil imports also speaks to the latter. This doesn’t mean that the UK is problem-free and an example for the EU to follow, however. Last month, energy industry association Offshore Energies UK warned that the country’s gas producers were struggling to increase output, which could threaten the security of supply. This, the association said, could result in the UK becoming dependent on imports for as much as 70-80 percent of its consumption in the future.