SmartCity Kochi all set for the inauguration on May 20
The Singapore-based MariApps which offers state-of-the-art maritime enterprise solutions for the marine industry having its operations in Europe, South-east Asia among other locations, will be the first company to be operational from SmartCity Kochi when it is going to be inaugurated on May 20, 2016. Another Singapore-based company, Singnet Solutions, will follow suit when it is going to be functional in the first week of June 2016 from the first IT tower. Dr. Baju George, interim CEO, SmartCity Kochi, said the project is in full throttle now to meet the 2020 deadline of the completion of the master plan as envisaged. “With the support of our co-developers, SmartCity is on its track to changing the business and social landscape of Kochi,” he said. Holiday Group, one of the joint developers of SmartCity Kochi, has begun the construction of its 14.37 lakh sq ft tower. It wiill be the third IT tower in the 246-acres SmartCity project right after SmartCity Kochi’s own first IT building and the IT tower by Sands Infrabuild Private Limited, which is touted to be one of the tallest IT towers in the country. Spread over 6.27 acres, Holiday group’s 14.37 lakh sq ft building will boast of twin towers each comprising 10 storeys. With around 35 storey capacity, the Sands Infrabuild towers will provide employment to 22,000 people. On the social infrastructure front, the 3 lakh sq ft facilities of GEMS Modern Academy, the K-12 international school being set up by GEMS Education, one of the largest educators in the world, is fast nearing completion. Keelan Cole Authentic Jersey
DBTL helped save Rs 216.72 billion of LPG subsidy
Pradhan outlines four-point identification programme for Ujjwala beneficiaries. The government saved more than Rs 216.72 billion of LPG subsidy outgo in the past two financial years (2014-15 and 2015-16) thanks to the implementation of the Direct Benefit Transfer in LPG (DBTL) scheme that eliminated ghost or duplicate connections. The scheme, under which cooking gas subsidy is transferred directly into bank accounts of beneficiaries to cut down leakages, was rolled out beginning November 2014. “If DBTL was not there, the government would have had to spend around Rs 150 billion more in 2014-15,” petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan said at a seminar on energy subsidies here. Oil ministry’s Joint Secretary Ashutosh Jindal, who was also present on the occasion, said the savings accruing as a result of DBTL stood at around Rs 70 billion last fiscal, lower than the gains of Rs 146.72 billion in previous financial year, due to the slump in crude oil prices. India had 181.9 million registered LPG consumers as on 1 April 2015 including 148.5 million active consumers implying a gap of 33.4 million duplicate, fake or inactive consumers, according to the oil ministry. Eliminating these unclaimed 33.4 million consumers helped save Rs 146.72 billion in 2014-15, Pradhan said. DeMario Davis Authentic Jersey
Gas price issue: RIL to decide on merits of arbitration
Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is perusing whether to withdraw a pending arbitration with the government on the gas price issue so that it can benefit from the higher prices. The company’s top management is understood to be looking into two divergent views of whether to drop the arbitration to gain from the near doubling of gas prices or carry on with the two-year-old case. “There is a view in favour of continuing with the case, while a second one favours dropping the arbitration. Both the views have been presented to the top management and the board will take a final call,” said a senior executive close to the development. An e-mail sent to the firm remained unanswered. The Cabinet had decided in March a new liberal pricing policy would apply to a company only if it ended or withdrew disputes it had filed against the government on gas pricing. Key RIL executives, including Executive Director P M S Prasad and President (E&P) Ajay Khandelwal, had met Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan early last month, fuelling speculation over whether the company has initiated talks with the government on withdrawing arbitration. The previous government had in January 2014 notified domestic natural gas pricing guidelines that would have doubled the prices from the then prevailing $4.2 per million British thermal units (mBtu). However, an Election Commission diktat did not allow the implementation of the guidelines from April 1, 2014. In May 2014, RIL and its partners BP and Niko went to court against the government for not implementing the new price. The National Democratic Alliance government came to power in May 2014 and deferred the revision of gas price. A new price of $5.6 per mBtu was implemented from November 2014. The government had in March this year launched crucial reforms for the oil and gas sector, based on which the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell of the oil ministry had announced a ceiling price of $6.61 per mBtu for gas from deep water, ultra-deepwater and high-pressure, high-temperature areas. This was more than double the current domestic gas price of $3.06 per mBtu. A source close to RIL denied the firm discussed the issue of withdrawal with Pradhan in the April 5 meeting but asserted the company was pressing ahead with its development plan for the KG Basin project. RIL had last month floated an expression of interest (EoI) to develop its oil and gas assets, including some of the discoveries in the KG-D6 block. Based on the bids, RIL plans to submit a revised field development plan to the government. The firm is also looking to place engineering, procurement, installation and commissioning contract for subsea facilities and pipelines for deepwater field development and offshore platform modification work. For KG-D6, the firm has invited an EoI for all operation and maintenance services, equipment and materials. Mario Addison Womens Jersey
In 2008, DGH declared GSPC’s K-G venture as commercially viable’
Taking on the Opposition’s corruption allegations in Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation Limited (GSPC)’s Krishna-Godavari (K-G) Block venture, Gujarat Energy Minister Saurabh Patel said that the previous UPA government and its officials had approved the commercial viability of the project as well as the Field Development Plan in 2009. “This itself shows that the UPA government and its Director General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) himself had accepted the success of GSPC. Hence, the investment of ?198.16 billion made by GSPC was not a wasteful spend as alleged by the Opposition, which wants to score political points falsely indicting GSPC and thereby Gujarat government,” said the Minister. Patel said that GSPC first focused on developing three discoveries of the DDW field in KG Block. In December 2008, the DGH had approved this project as commercially viable and going a step further, the DGH and the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas had approved the FDP in November 2009, Patel stated adding that the company has entered into the production stage of the Field Development Plan. Challenging the Opposition charges on surrender settlement costs for surrendering the 37 blocks, Patel maintained that out of 65 blocks, GSPC did not succeed in 37 blocks. “GSPC spent ?29.92 billion for these surrendered blocks. But such cases are normal in the hydrocarbon sector. Central PSU ONGC had spent ?480 billion, while Oil India Limited (OIL) had spent around ?18 billion for such surrender settlement. Also, British Petroleum had to spend ?480 billion towards exploration cost settlement,” said Patel. Charges baseless The minister further mentioned that once the company begins commercial production, it will start getting revenues, hence the allegations of pending recovery of ?23.1943 billion from the joint venture partners Geo Global Resources and Jubilant have no truth in it, he said. “We plan to recover the dues of ?10.346 billion from Geo Global from its revenue share from the sale of gas. Similarly, Jubilant Offshore Drilling Pvt Ltd has paid ?14.2094 billion to GSPC so far. The remaining will be recovered from the company from its share of revenue from the sale of gas,” Patel informed. Ryan Getzlaf Authentic Jersey
RPower gets approval for LNG-based plant in Bangladesh
Anil Ambani-led Reliance Power has won an in-principle approval from the Bangladesh government for the first phase of the 3,000 megawatt LNG-based power plant. “Under the approval, first phase of 750 MW power plant will be set up at Meghnaghat (Narayanganj district), around 40 km South-East of Dhaka, along with the FSRU terminal at Maheshkhali Island in Cox’s Bazar district of Bangladesh,” the company said in a statement here. Reliance Power will set up a 2-million-tonne a year floating LNG import terminal with a floating storage and re-gasification unit (FSRU) to bring the fuel in ships for firing the power plant. “Power plant land at Meghnaghat will be provided by Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB). FSRU-based LNG terminal will supply re-gasified LNG for the power project and additional RLNG to PetroBangla,” the statement said. The first phase will be commissioned in 24 months from the zero date, in 2018-19 and help meet Bangladesh’s rising demand for electricity. “This will be the largest foreign direct investment in Bangladesh with a potential investment of over $1.3 billion,” the statement said. Total investment in the 3,000-MW power plant together with LNG terminal would be close to $3 billion. The company will use the equipment it had contracted for its Samalkot project in Andhra Pradesh for setting up the power plant in Bangladesh. The equipment will be under appropriate warranties from General Electric (GE), the USA and other global suppliers. Deone Bucannon Jersey
Changi Airport Group names Air India top airline for absolute growth in passenger carriage
Singapore-based Changi Airport Group ( CAG) named Air India top airline by absolute growth in passenger carriage ( South Asia). The award was presented to Air India at the Changi Airline Awards 2016. “At the annual event, along with Air India, 25 awards were presented across six categories to airlines that have contributed most significantly to the growth of the Singapore air hub in 2015,” said a release from the company. Air India currently operates 42 weekly flights between India and Singapore, with daily services from Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai. The airline registered a strong 25% year-on-year growth in passenger carriage on its Singapore routes in 2015, largely spurred by an increased passenger capacity due to aircraft upgrade, as well as an expansion of routes in the last two years, the release added. In 2015, 3.4 million passengers travelled between India and Singapore. Linked to 13 cities in India through 404 flights on a weekly basis, Changi Airport is the most connected Southeast Asian airport to India, and a gateway to the rest of Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand. George Kittle Authentic Jersey
Different Rates for Supply of Natural Gas in States
The Minister of State (I/C) for Petroleum & Natural Gas Shri Dharmendra Pradhan informed the Rajya Sabha that the delivered price of gas varies from customer to customer depending upon the basic price of gas, transportation cost, local taxes and levies. The natural gas consumed in the country can be categorized into two category viz., domestic gas and imported Regasified Liquefied Natural Gas (RLNG). The price of domestic natural gas is determined in accordance with the New Domestic Natural Gas Pricing Guidelines, 2014. As per the above guidelines, the base price of domestic natural gas supplied is same for all consumers irrespective of their location and sector, except for North East Region where the rate is 60% of the notified rate for certain allocations. The imported RLNG is being supplied at market determined prices by different gas suppliers/importers and Government does not control the prices of imported RLNG. Logan Cooke Womens Jersey
Reforms in Oil and Gas Exploration
The Minister of State (I/C) for Petroleum & Natural Gas Shri Dharmendra Pradhan informed the Rajya Sabha that the Government takes various policy and administrative initiatives from time to time to facilitate hydrocarbon exploration in the country. Some of the policy decisions taken by the Government in recent years to enhance exploration and production activities are as under: • Government has approved Hydrocarbon and Exploration Licensing Policy (HELP) and same has been notified on 30th March 2016. This policy provides for a uniform licensing system to explore and produce all hydrocarbons such as oil, gas, coal bed methane, shale oil/gas, etc. under a single licensing framework Policy also provides many incentives such as reduced royalty rates for offshore blocks, marketing & pricing freedom and easy to administer revenue sharing model. • Marketing and Pricing freedom for new gas production from Deepwater, Ultra Deepwater and High Pressure-High Temperature areas subject to certain conditions. • Discovered Small Fields Policy- 67 oil & gas fields which have been held by ONGC and OIL for many years, but have not been exploited, has been approved for bidding under this policy. • Policy for grant of extension to the Production Sharing Contracts of 28 Small and medium sized discovered blocks. • Policy Framework for relaxation, extensions and clarifications at the development and production stage under PSC regime for early monetization of hydrocarbon discoveries: Government approved this policy on 10.11.2014, and the same is being implemented. Under this policy, about 40 pending cases have been resolved. • New Domestic Natural Gas price Guidelines, 2014: Under these guidelines, gas price has been linked to the market/ important hub prices. OG Anunoby Authentic Jersey
UAE companies to invest $3.68 billion in Uttar Pradesh
Five leading Indian–owned businesses in UAE have committed to invest over Rs 25,090 crore ($3.68 billion) towards infrastructure and industrial development initiatives launched by Uttar Pradesh at the UP Investment Summit held in partnership with Times Now in Dubai. The Uttar Pradesh government led by chief minister Akhilesh Yadav had launched an ambitious programme to boost all-round development of the state by attracting NRI investments from across the globe, especially from the Middle East. These UAE-based companies have signed an MoU with the high-level delegation of UP state officials visiting the UAE, pledging to invest in the state’s upcoming manufacturing, utilities and healthcare initiatives. Barkevious Mingo Jersey
Piramal Enterprises enters fray for Lanco Infra assets
Piramal Enterprises, led by billionaire Ajay Piramal, is betting big on the infrastructure sector and the diversified company has entered the race to pick up a stake in debt-ridden Lanco Infra’s thermal power portfolio, four individuals familiar with the development told ET NOW on the condition of anonymity. “Preliminary talks have been initiated between Lanco Infra which is looking at inducting strategic investors to reduce its debt & the structured investment group of Piramal Enterprises which falls under Piramal Capital. A few overseas distressed asset funds are also interested in the portfolio. On completion and on a fully operational basis, the enterprise value of the 6 power plants of Lanco Infra is estimated between Rs 42,000 crs to Rs 45,000 crs,” said one of the two sources cited above . Piramal Capital is the financial services arm of Piramal Enterprises. Lanco’s thermal power portfolio has a total capacity of around 7256 MW and the company’s debt burden as of 31st, March, 2015 stood at Rs 37,526 crores. ” Lanco Infra is looking at carving out its thermal power assets into a separate holding company and then sell a 51% stake in the entity. They are looking at initially raising capital for operational assets and use the initial deal proceeds to revive the rest of the portfolio,” according to the other three sources cited above. ” In the thermal power segment, buyers are looking at cherry-picking operational assets,” says Jatin Aneja, National Practice Head, Projects & Projects Finance, at law firm Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas. Jarius Wright Womens Jersey