India decides not to impose ADDs on LDPE imports from four origins
India has decided not to impose anti-dumping duties (ADDs) on low density polyethylene (LDPE) imports from Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Singapore and the US. “The central government, after considering the final findings of the designated authority, has decided not to accept the recommendations to impose anti-dumping duty on the import of LDPE,” the Department of Revenue under the Ministry of Finance stated on 6 June. India was initially planning to impose ADDs ranging from $17.05/tonne to $216.76/tonne on LDPE imports from the four countries. An investigation into LDPE dumping from the four countries and two others was started in October 2020 following a complaint from India’s Chemicals and Petrochemicals Manufacturers Association (CPMA). In April 2022, a decision was made to terminate the probe on the UAE and Qatar. Conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is the sole producer of LDPE in India.
India has saved over ₹410 billion forex by use of 10% ethanol-blended petrol: Govt
The country has been able to save over ₹410 billion in foreign exchange through the use of 10% ethanol-blended petrol, said Ashwini Kumar Choubey, the Union minister of state for environment, forest and climate change, on Wednesday. “India recently achieved 10% ethanol blending target five months in advance, saving over ₹410 billion worth of fuel imports for the nation,” said Choubey while addressing an online event of auto industry body SIAM on sustainable mobility. The initiative has led to sizable benefits for farmers, he added. “Our next target is to achieve 20% ethanol blending and it is projected to be completed by 2025-26,” Choubey noted. He said ethanol blending is a great step toward reducing the country’s fuel imports and carbon emissions. Choubey’s thoughts were echoed by Sunil Kumar, the ministry of petroleum and natural gas joint secretary (refinery), who added that he is confident 20% ethanol blending in gasoline would be achieved by 2025-26. “We aim to achieve these plans uniformly across the country in the targeted years. With the efforts made by the government the existing installed ethanol distilleries have reached around 7 billion litres and likely to reach more than 12 billion litres for 20% blending by 2025-26,” he noted. Maruti Suzuki India CTO CV Raman said the target of 20% ethanol blending by 2025 would lead to a reduction in oil imports while incentivising farmers and reducing emissions. India’s ethanol blending goals India has achieved the target of supplying 10% ethanol-blended petrol five months ahead of schedule in June and is aiming to double the blend by 2025-26 in order to cut oil import dependence and address environmental issues. The original target for doping 10% ethanol, extracted from sugarcane and other agri commodities, in petrol was November 2023. The government had earlier informed that ethanol blending has reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of 2.7 million tonnes and has also led to the expeditious payment of over ₹406 billion to farmers. While earlier fuel-grade ethanol was produced only from sugarcane, since 2018, alternate routes such as sugarcane juice, sugar and sugar syrup, heavy molasses, damaged foodgrains unfit for human consumption, surplus rice and maize, were opened up. As the availability of ethanol increases, the equivalent amount of crude (used for petrol production) import is reduced.
Air Products Awarded Long-Term Hydrogen and Nitrogen Supply Agreement for Indian Oil Corporation
Air Products, a world leader in industrial gases and large-scale project development, execution and operation, today announced the signing of a long-term supply agreement with Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL), India’s flagship national oil company. Air Products will build, own and operate (BOO) a new industrial gases complex supplying hydrogen, nitrogen and steam to IOCL’s Barauni Refinery in Bihar, India. The new industrial gas complex will aid IOCL’s capacity expansion from six to nine million tonnes per annum producing Euro-VI or BS-VI compliant gasoline and diesel at its Barauni complex. The industrial gas complex will include the latest generation multi-feed hydrogen production facility supplying 70,000 normal cubic meters per hour (Nm3/hr) of hydrogen as well as steam, and a high-efficiency air separation unit producing 4,000 Nm3/hr of nitrogen. Air Products expects the new industrial gas complex for IOCL to come onstream in 2024. Air Products’ chief operating officer Dr. Samir J. Serhan said, “We are honored to work with IOCL, the largest petroleum refining company and largest Public Sector Undertaking in India. As one of the fastest growing economies in the world, our latest strategic investment in India will provide an efficient combination of industrial gas production technologies, enabling IOCL to meet ever-increasing transportation fuel demand. We look forward to reliably supplying IOCL’s industrial gas needs for decades to come.” Juan Gonzalez, vice president, Large Project Business Development, Air Products Middle East, Egypt, Turkey and India, said, “We are proud to work with IOCL as they look to significantly expand their operations at Barauni. We look forward to bringing our global expertise, experience and world-class engineering capabilities to this project.”
Indian Crude Basket Price Soars To $118.06 Per Barrel
Price of Indian basket crude soared to $118.06 per barrel as on June 7 at an exchange rate of (Rs/$) of ₹ 77.72 according to data released by Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC). At the same time, the average price of Indian basket crude oil in June (till Tuesday), rose to $117.01 per barrel, the PPAC data showed. The surge in average Indian basket crude price is significant as in May 2022, the average price was 109.51 per barrel. Despite crude oil prices surging, fuel prices in the country have been on a freeze since May 22, 2022 and oil marketing companies have been indicating to the Government about under-recoveries. Though refiners have been regularly buying Russian crude at discounted prices and analysts have said that this may to an extent, help cover their losses, the rising crude prices are gradually putting pressure on their margins.
Russia has no extra oil to sign deals with two Indian buyers
Russia’s Rosneft is holding back on signing new crude oil deals with two Indian state refiners, three sources with knowledge of the matter said, as it has committed sales to other customers. Indian refiners have been snapping up cheap Russian oil, shunned by western companies and countries since sanctions were imposed against Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, which Russia calls a “special military operation”. A lack of new term supply deals with Rosneft may push Indian refiners to turn to the spot market for more expensive oil. It also indicates that Russia has managed to keep exporting its oil despite increasing pressure from Western sanctions to choke Moscow’s revenue. Drawn to the discounts offered, three Indian state refiners – Indian Oil Corp, Bharat Petroleum Corp and Hindustan Petroleum – opened negotiations with Rosneft earlier this year for six-month supply deals. So far only IOC, the country’s top refiner, has signed a deal with Rosneft, which will see it buy 6 million barrels of Russian oil every month, with an option to buy 3 million barrels more. The other two refiners’ requests have since been turned down by the Russian producer, the sources said. “Rosneft is non-committal in signing a contract with HPCL and BPCL. They are saying they don’t have volumes,” said one of the sources. Rosneft, IOC, HPCL and BPCL did not respond to Reuters’s requests for comment. Russia is ramping up oil exports from its major eastern port of Kozmino by about a fifth to meet surging demand from Asian buyers and offset the impact of European Union sanctions. Trade sources said Rosneft is pushing barrels into the markets through trading firms such as Everest Energy, Coral Energy, Bellatrix and Sunrise. Bellatrix and Sunrise were not available for comment, while Coral and Everest did not respond to a Reuters email seeking comment. According to the shipping data cited by two traders in the Urals market, all four trading firms acted as suppliers of crude oil purchased from Rosneft to India. China has also boosted its purchases from Russia. Rosneft has awarded 900,000 tonnes (6.66 million barrels) of ESPO Blend crude oil loading in June to Unipec, the trading arm of Asia’s top refiner Sinopec Corp, according to four traders. Indian sources said Russian oil is no longer available at deep discounts and they get fewer offers for sale on a Delivered At Port (DAP) basis, an international commercial term in which the seller pays for insurance and freight and ownership is transferred to the buyer only after the cargo is discharged. “Earlier the companies were offering good discounts but that is not available now. Offers have been reduced and discounts are not as good as before, as insurance and freight rates have gone up,” another source said. The European Union, which along with Britain and the United States dominate the international marine market, last week announced an immediate ban on new insurance contracts for ships carrying Russian oil, and gave a six-month grace period for existing contracts. The lack of shipping insurance coverage has hit IOC’s purchases of Russian oil under a contract it signed with Rosneft last year, sources said. The contract gives IOC an option to buy 2 million tonnes of oil from Rosneft on a free on board (FOB) basis, which requires the buyer to charter ships and pay for insurance to load the cargoes from Russia.