Indian govt plans 5% ethanol blending in diesel
The government is evaluating a plan to blend 5% ethanol in diesel (ED-5) as it nears its goal of achieving 20% ethanol blending in petrol within the next two years, according to ToI. A meeting on this new proposal took place last week at the Prime Minister’s Office with all relevant ministries in attendance, souces told ToI. The ethanol blending initiative aims to enhance environmental benefits and reduce crude oil import costs. In May, the average ethanol blending in petrol exceeded 15% for the first time. This was made possible through increased purchases from biofuel producers who have expanded their production capacity significantly in recent years.
Why state-run oil companies are spending billions on petchem capacity
In the boardrooms of Indian state refiners and in the halls of the oil ministry, there is a buzz surrounding an esoteric term: The Petrochemical Intensity Index (PII). Indian oil companies plan to produce more of value-added chemicals from processing crude oil while reducing the volume of fuels, whose demand is expected to eventually extinguish as the world shifts to cleaner energy. Until now, many of these chemicals, the building blocks of plastics and paint used in homes, hospitals, and industries came from China. India depends on imports to meet 19 per cent and 30 per cent of polypropylene and polyethylene, respectively, the basic commoditised chemicals, and 67 per cent and 81 per cent on PVC and Toluene, which are value-added substances, shows CareEdge data.
Government Allows ONGC, Oil India To Price Gas From New Wells At 20% Premium
The Union government allowed Oil & Natural Gas Corp. and Oil India Ltd. on Monday to price domestically produced natural gas at 20% premium over the administrative price mechanism in a bid to make new gas development projects viable. In the context of India’s oil and gas sector, the APM refers to a government-controlled pricing system that is used to determine the price of petroleum products. The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas notified the allocation of gas produced from new wells or well interventions from nominated fields of ONGC and Oil India at 20% premium over the APM price. The enhanced price for new gas will make the new gas development projects viable and help ONGC to augment the production of natural gas from nominated fields in challenging areas that require higher amount of capital and technology, the company said in a statement. Under the domestic gas pricing guidelines, the APM price is set at 10% of the Indian crude basket price, as announced monthly by the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell. The guidelines specify that gas produced from new wells or well interventions in ONGC and Oil India’s nomination fields will be priced at a 20% premium over the APM prices, making it a total of 12% of the Indian crude basket price for new gas. The APM gas price as of June is $8.44 per million British thermal unit. The ONGC board recently approved the Daman Upside Development project in its nominated field of Mumbai High at a cost of around Rs 78 billion for increasing the domestic gas production. The peak production envisaged from this project is around 5 million metric standard cubic metres per day. It has also approved another project integrated development of four contract areas under DSF-II at a project cost of Rs 60 billion with a peak production of around 4 mmscmd of gas where the government has already allowed pricing and marketing freedom.
GAIL head Sandeep Gupta in the race for Indian Oil Corp’s new chairman
Nearly a dozen candidates on Sunday appeared for interview before a search-cum-selection panel that is looking to appoint the new chairman of Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the nation’s largest oil firm, sources said. While 10 out of the nearly 60 candidates who applied were called for interviews, GAIL chairman and managing director Sandeep Gupta is being considered a wild card Gupta had not applied but was called for the interview, three sources aware of the matter said. “They had invited 10 of the candidates who had applied. Gupta was the 11th person to be interviewed,” one of them said. Gupta, 58, was director (finance) in IOC before he was appointed the CMD of gas utility GAIL in October 2022. Those interviewed on Sunday included two directors on IOC board – Satish Kumar Vaduguri (Director-Marketing) and Arvind Kumar (Director-Refineries).