Reliance Industries Presents Removable Energy Storage Battery
India’s oil-to-telecoms conglomerate Reliance Industries presented on Wednesday a removable battery for energy storage that could be used for electric vehicles and for powering appliances via an inverter, company officials told Reuters. Reliance Industries, chaired by Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani, has ambitious plans to grow in the ‘New Energy’ business with battery storage, renewable power generation, solar module manufacturing, fuel cells, and electrolyzers. The executives at Reliance Industries who spoke to Reuters didn’t announce details such as when the company could start selling such removable multi-purpose batteries. Reliance Industries will look to partner with EV makers although it doesn’t plan to go into EV manufacturing, according to a presentation at the event at which the removable battery was unveiled. In recent years, the group’s subsidiary Reliance New Energy Ltd (RNEL) has acquired sodium-ion battery technology company Faradion Ltd. for an enterprise value of $121 million (£ 100 million) and Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) batteries provider Lithium Werks for $61 million. Lithium Werks provides cobalt-free and high-performance LFP batteries. Battery storage and technology is one of the areas of focus for Reliance’s new energy business. Other recent investments include a stake in an energy storage company, the acquisition of solar cells and panels and polysilicon manufacturing firm REC Solar Holdings AS, and investments in collaboration for developing hydrogen electrolyzers. Reliance Industries said in early 2022 it would invest as much as $76 billion in green energy projects in India over the next 15 years. Reliance had already announced the year prior a commitment to invest more than $10 billion in three years in a new business unit that would build solar modules, battery storage, electrolyzer, and fuel cell factories. “We have a 15-year vision to build Reliance as one of the world’s leading New Energy and New Materials company,” Ambani said at the company’s 2020 annual general meeting.
Saudi Arabia And Russia Will Not Alter Voluntary Oil Supply Cuts
Saudi Arabia and Russia, the key OPEC+ partners, will be keeping their oil supply cuts in November despite the recent crude oil price rally. Hours before a regular OPEC+ panel meeting, Saudi Arabia said early on Wednesday it would continue cutting an extra 1 million barrels per day (bpd) from its crude oil production in November and December, and Russia said in a separate statement it would continue to reduce oil exports by 300,000 bpd until the end of the year. The near-simultaneous announcements from the two leaders of the OPEC+ alliance did not surprise the market, although some analysts have suggested that the Kingdom could begin easing the cut sooner than oil market participants believe as the world’s top crude oil exporter wouldn’t risk demand destruction through too high prices. Saudi Arabia continues with the extra 1 million bpd cut in November and December and thus the Kingdom’s oil production will be approximately 9 million bpd until the end of the year, the Saudi Ministry of Energy said as carried by the official Saudi Press Agency. “This voluntary cut decision will be reviewed next month to consider deepening the cut or increasing production,” the agency noted. At the same time, Alexander Novak, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister and top oil representative of the country at OPEC+ meetings, said in an official statement that Moscow would continue with the 300,000-bpd cut to oil exports by the end of the year. Russia also said it would review the decision next month after analyzing the market. Both Saudi Arabia and Russia reiterated today that the ongoing oil supply cuts are aimed at keeping “stability and balance on the oil markets.” The announcements came only hours before the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) of OPEC+ meets for a regular discussion of the oil market developments in recent weeks. Expectations were that no changes would be made to decisions about supply during the meeting.
IndianOil to invest over Rs 26 billion to set up greenfield units, expand facilities in northeast
Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) has firmed up plans to pump in over Rs 26 billion in setting up several greenfield units and expanding its facilities across the northeast over the next few years, a senior company official said. The board of Indian Oil has already approved various new projects, while some are in the process of getting the nod, with the leading energy firm in talks with the local governments in Meghalaya, Mizoram and Manipur to finalise land parcels for the greenfield units. “Northeast is one of the most important regions for Indian Oil and much focus is given here by the top management. We have planned to augment our operations by enhancing refining as well as petroleum, oil and lubricant (POL) storage capacities,” Indian Oil’s Executive Director (Indian Oil-AOD) Ganesan Ramesh told PTI in an interview. The company is at present carrying out nearly a dozen projects, both greenfield and brownfield, across the region, entailing a total investment of Rs 26.12 billion, he said. “We have a major project coming up in the POL segment — a greenfield depot at Sekerkote in Tripura at an investment of Rs 6.56 billion,” Ramesh said. Another project, for which the board has given its nod, is the expansion of the Betkuchi POL depot in Guwahati at a cost of Rs 2.77 billion. IOC plans to increase the storage intake to 54,000 kilolitres from the existing 25,000 KL, install new fire water tanks and other facilities. It has already acquired an additional 10.67 acres of land to expand the Betkuchi plant. “Indian Oil has plans for capacity expansion of its refineries at Guwahati and Digboi with project costs of Rs 4.12 billion and Rs 7.68 billion, respectively. Expansion of the Bongaigaon refinery is also envisaged under the North East Hydrocarbon Vision 2030, and currently land acquisition process is under progress,” the official said. He said the company has decided to revamp the Dimapur depot in Nagaland, and the board approval is in the process for an estimated expenditure of Rs 2.31 billion. “Land is being finalised for setting up of greenfield POL depots at Umran in Meghalaya and Sihhmui in Mizoram to provide fuel security for these states. We are also in talks with the Manipur government for a wagon receipt facility at our Imphal depot,” Ramesh said. In order to ramp up the LPG bottling infrastructure in all the northeastern states, the PSU major has lined up a few projects, he said. “A new 30 TMTPA (thousand metric tonnes per annum) LPG bottling plant is being set up at Umiam, Meghalaya at an approved cost of Rs 755.4 million. There is another plan for a new 30 TMTPA bottling plant in Mualkhang, Mizoram at an estimated cost of Rs 1.93 billion,” Ramesh said. IOC has a total bottling capacity of 692 TMTPA across its 10 LPG plants in the northeast. It has 871 distributors with 9.1 million active customers out of the total LPG customer base of 11.2 million in the region, transforming it into 81.2 percent of the total connections. In the northeast, Indian Oil is the market leader in the POL segment with the highest market share of 64.4 per cent in petrol and 64.5 percent in diesel, Ramesh said. It has a robust marketing infrastructure with around 1,427 retail outlets and 467 superior kerosene oil (SKO) dealerships, which are supported by 10 bulk storage depots or terminals, he added.