Petronet LNG tenders to buy two LNG cargoes
India’s biggest gas importer Petronet LNG (PLNG.NS) has tendered to buy two cargoes of liquefied natural gas, two trade sources said. The cargoes are for delivery in August and September, the sources said. LaDainian Tomlinson Womens Jersey
Essar Oil to double CBM production this year
Company to ramp up wells count in Raniganj East block coal fields, seeks to triple output to 2.5 mn scmd in FY18, from current level. Essar Oil & Gas is planning to ramp up its coal-based methane (CBM) production to a minimum of 1.8 million standard cubic metres per day (scmd) by the end of the current fiscal year from the existing 0.85 million scmd and scale it further up to 2.5 million scmd during 2017-18. In this endeavour, it will increase its wells count in theRaniganj East block coal fields from the near-300 mark to 363 this year. “We’ll complete the increase in well count by March 2017. Of the near 300 wells now, 266 have been fracked while 247 have been completed and 175 have been on active de-absorbtion cycle”, the company’s CEO of exploration and production, Manish Maheshwari told Business Standard. It has a revenue-sharing contract with the government for the 260-acre Raniganj CBM project, where it has been granted mining rights for 500 sq km. So far, the company has made an investment of Rs 3,300 crore in this project, which is in advanced stage of operations. The company owns CBM mining rights in the coalfields in Raniganj in West Bengal, Sohagpur in Madhya Pradesh-Chattisgarh, Rajmahal in Jharkhand and Talcher and Ib Valley mines in Odisha making it the largest private CBM producer in India. “Rajmahal will also begin production in five years. Currently there are 20 core holes in this project and we have received the necessary approvals for land acquisition there. At present only Raniganj is producing the CBM but other projects will come up in time”, he said. This project, where the company is pumping in $ 3-4 million is in its primary stage. While land acquisition approval for the Sohagpur minefield is pending from the Chattisgarh government, the Petroleum Exploration Licence for the Talcher and Ib Valley coalfields is pending from the Odisha state government. All these coalfields is supposed to have a reserve of 12 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of CBM of which Raniganj has a possible reserve of 1.1 tcf. To extract CBM from these coal mines, the company has employed six drilling rigs of which two have been procured from Greka drilling on a contractual basis. It is also on the lookout for CBM mining projects globally including Iran but will keep off “matured markets” like USA and Australia. Besides, Essar Oil & Gas, which is expecting the global crude scenario to remain buoyant at a maximum of $ 50 per barrel of oil till mid-2017 is also planning to aggressively increase its count of petrol pumps from over 2,000 outlets to 5,000 outlets by 2018. Butch Goring Jersey
Iran seeks interest on $6.5 bn due from Indian oil refiners
Iran has asked Indian refiners like Essar Oil and MRPL to pay interest rate of Libor-plus 0.75 per cent on the USD 6.5 billion they owe it in past oil dues, to make up for the foreign exchange losses. The demand was made when Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan met Iranian Central Bank Governor Valiollah Seif in Tehran earlier this month. “They are seeking interest rate on past oil dues. They mentioned a rate of Libor (London Inter-Bank Offered Rate) – plus 0.75 per cent in the meeting,” a senior official said. Iran is insisting on interest being paid after differences cropped up over foreign exchange rate. Iran sold oil to refiners like Essar Oil and Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) in US dollar per barrel. 45 per cent of the oil bill was paid in rupees in a UCO Bank account while the rest 55 per cent was to be cleared whenever banking channels open. Now with lifting of sanctions, Iran has presented its unpaid bill. But Essar Oil and other refiners want to pay Iran at the exchange rate prevalent at the time of buying crude oil in the last three years. Rupee to a US dollar was under 55 in February 2013 when the 45:55 payment system became operational. Rupee to a US dollar is nearing 67 now. “They (Iran) say they are losing a lot of money due to exchange rate variation and now want to make it up through interest rate,” the official said. India is agreeable to paying some interest rate even though the ‘Bilateral Payment Agreement’ entered into in August 2012 does not provide for payment of interest. The official said Iranian Central Bank officials will shortly visit India to further discuss the modalities. Ideally, if refiners had kept dollar equivalent to their purchase in separate account over the years they could have readily paid Iran now. But for a barrel of oil they bought in February 2013 at say USD 80, they would now have to pay Rs 5,360 instead of Rs 4,400 then. He said Iran wants its dollar dues in full without factoring in the exchange rate. Refiners like Essar Oil on the other hand want to pay rupee equivalent of the purchase at current rate. Iran, he said, wants dollar equivalent of the dues in Euros. Tehran has told India that the three-year old mechanism of paying 45 per cent of oil import bill in rupees and keeping the remaining 55 per cent pending for payment channels to clear, has come to an end. It will be opening or re-activating euro accounts with Indian banks and would like to have the past money transferred from refiners into these accounts. Mike Hull Jersey
Slow networks in India preventing Apple from full bloom: Tim Cook
India presents a “really great opportunity” for Apple but slow networks and the informal retail structure there is preventing the tech giant from realising its full potential, its CEO Tim Cook said as the company’s revenues plunged for the first time in 13 years. Cook said while India is the third-largest smartphone market in the world, it is dominated by “low-end” smartphones primarily because of the network and the economics due to which “the market potential has not been as great there.” Cook, addressing analysts in a conference call after the company posted decline in revenues for the first time in 13 years, said while India presents a “really great opportunity” for the company, slow networks and the informal retail structure across the country is holding the company back from realising its full potential. “But I view India as where China was maybe seven to ten years ago from that point of view, and I think there’s a really great opportunity there,” he said. While sales for Apple in China, its second-largest market after the United States, fell 11 per cent, in India iPhone sales were up 56 per cent from a year ago. Cook said Apple is placing increasing emphasis in such emerging markets where it’s clear there will be disproportionate growth as compared to the more developed areas. “…if you look at India, and each country has a different story a bit, but the things that have held not only us back perhaps but some others as well is that the LTE rollout with India just really began this year, and so we’ll begin to see some really good networks coming on in India,” Cook said yesterday. He said faster networks will “unleash the power and capability” of the iPhone in a manner that older networks like the 2.5G or even some 3G networks, would not do. “And so the infrastructure is one key,” he said. Cook described building the retail channel as another area that will help Apple get a stronghold in the market. He said unlike in the US, where the carriers sell the vast majority of phones, in India the carriers in general sell virtually no phones. “And so it’s out in retail, and retail is many, many different small shops,” he said. Cook pointed out that Apple has been working in India “with great energy” particularly over the last 18 months and he “encouraged” by the results the company is beginning to see in the market there. He said the company believes “there’s a lot, lot more there.” Apple announced yesterday financial results for its fiscal 2016 second quarter ended March 26, 2016. The company posted quarterly revenue of $50.6 billion, down from $58 billion in the year-ago quarter. Its quarterly net income stood at $10.5 billion, a decline from $13.6 billion in the same period last year. Sales of its best-selling iPhone dropped year-over-year for the first time, slipping to 51.19 million in the recently ended quarter compared with 61.17 million in the same period a year ago. Despite the decline, Cook sounded an optimistic note saying “this too shall pass” and “the future of Apple is very bright”. “Our product pipeline has amazing innovations in store.” Brandon McCarthy Authentic Jersey
Apple’s 9-year iPhone juggernaut stops with first sales decline
Apple Inc on Tuesday posted its first-ever decline in iPhone sales and its first revenue drop in 13 years as the company credited with inventing the smartphone struggles with an increasingly saturated market. The company’s sales dropped by more than a quarter in China, its most important market after the United States, and it also forecast another disappointing quarter for global revenues. Its shares fell about 8 per cent, dropping below $100 for the first time since February. A hike in Apple’s share buyback and dividend as well as bumper revenue from services failed to mollify investors. Apple’s results followed disappointing quarterly reports from Microsoft Corp and Google-owner Alphabet Inc , and microblog Twitter also on Tuesday reported results that missed expectations. Apple said it sold 51.2 million iPhones in its second fiscal quarter, down from 61.2 million in the same quarter a year ago but above analysts’ estimates of about 50 million devices. While Apple executives had predicted iPhone sales would decline this quarter, they must reassure investors that the drop represents a momentary roadblock, rather than a permanent shift for the product that fueled its meteoric rise. After years of blockbuster sales, many investors fear the iPhone has reached saturation, spelling the end for Apple’s exponential growth. “Apple needs to come up with a radical new innovation or product rather than just the current incremental improvements to existing products. This is the only way in which it will reinvigorate sales growth,” said Neil Saunders, chief executive of research firm Conlumino. Apple Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri told Reuters that the success of the iPhone 6 a year earlier had set a difficult bar to beat in the second quarter. “The iPhone 6 is an anomaly,” he said. But Chief Executive Tim Cook told analysts that the smartphone market was not growing, reinforcing wider concerns of saturation. Cook also conceded that the iPhone 6S was driving customers to replace phones at a much lower rate than the 6. “I don’t mean just a hair lower; it’s a lot lower,” he said. “If we’d had the same rate on 6S as 6, it would be time for a huge party.” He pointed to the services division, which includes Apple Music and the App Store, as a bright spot. Its revenue grew 20 percent to $6 billion and surpassed iMac and iPad sales. Cook also hinted that Apple had more gadgets to come. “The future of Apple is very bright,” he said. “Our product pipeline has amazing innovations in store.” Earnings of $1.90 per share fell short of the average analyst estimate of $2 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Revenue of $50.56 billion missed expectations of $51.97 billion. Apple forecast third-quarter revenue of $41 billion to $43 billion, short of the Wall Street consensus of $47.3 billion. Apple also said it was raising its capital return program by $50 billion through a $35 billion increase in its share buyback authorization and a 10 percent rise in the quarterly dividend. iPHONE SE DEMAND STRONG In March, Apple released the iPhone SE, a smaller, 4-inch-screen phone featuring much of the company’s latest technology. Although sales of the phone were not captured in the second quarter, the device is off to a strong start, particularly in emerging markets, Maestri said. “The situation right now around the world is that we are supply-constrained,” he said. “The demand has been very, very strong.” Although Apple’s revenue in Greater China fell 26 percent from the year-ago quarter, Maestri stressed that the company was “extremely optimistic” about China. “We continue to make a lot of investment there,” he said. Cook said that mainland China sales were down only 7 percent in constant currency, attributing much of the Greater China drop to Hong Kong, where strength in the local dollar, which is pegged to U.S. currency, deterred tourist shopping. The company did not comment on prospects for its iBooks Stores and iTunes Movie service, which were shut down last week in China. The drop in after-hours shares wipes out roughly $46 billion in market capitalization, roughly the value of heavy equipment maker Caterpillar Inc. In reaction to Apple’s results, shares of its suppliers Skyworks Solutions, Qorvo, Broadcom and NXP Semiconductors all fell 2 percent or more on Tuesday. Pittsburgh Steelers Authentic Jersey
Only 7% of India’s B-school graduates employable: Study
Barring a handful of top business schools like the IIMs, most B-schools in the country are producing sub-par graduates who are largely un-employable and therefore earning less than Rs 10,000 a month, if at all they find a job, a report has pointed out. The report blames the lack of quality control and infrastructure, low-paying jobs through campus placement and poor faculty as the major reasons behind India’s unfolding B-school disaster. India has at least 5,500 B-schools operational at present, but including unapproved institutes could take that number much higher, the report by Assocham said, expressing concern over the decay in the standards of these B-schools. “Only 7 per cent of MBA graduates from Indian business schools, excluding those from the top 20 schools, get a job straight after completing their course,” it found. The report says that only 7 per cent of the MBA graduates are actually employable. “Around 220 B-schools have shut down in the last two years in Delhi-NCR (National Capital Region), Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Dehradun etc. and at least 120 more are expected to wind up in 2016. “Low education quality coupled with the economic slowdown, from 2014 to 2016, campus recruitments have gone down by a whopping 45 per cent,” the study revealed. In the last five years, the number of B-school seats has tripled. In 2015-16, these schools offered a total of 5,20,000 seats in MBA courses, compared to 3,60,000 in 2011-12. The report observed that while on an average each student spends nearly Rs 3-5 lakh on a two-year MBA programme, their current monthly salary is a measly Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000. “Even the quality of IIM/IIT students coming out now compared to last 15 years has come down due to the quality of school education. The faculty is also another problem as few people enter the teaching profession due to low salaries and the entire eco-system needs to be revamped,” said the report. “The quality of higher education in India across disciplines is poor and does not meet the needs of the corporate world,” Assocham Secretary General D S Rawat said. The report also observed that out of 15 lakh engineering graduates India produces every year, 20-30 per cent of them do not find jobs and many other get jobs well below their technical qualification. Aldrick Rosas Jersey
FDI up 37% after launch of Make in India: Nirmala Sitharaman
Foreign direct investment (FDI) into the country has increased 37 per cent after the launch of ‘Make in India’ programme till February this year, Parliament was informed today. “In the 17-month period (October 2014-February 2016) up to February after the launch of ‘Make in India’, FDI inflows have increased by 37 per cent,” Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha. She also said the overseas inflows grew 29 per cent during the period compared to the 15-month period prior to the launch. The ‘Make in India’ initiative was launched on September 25, 2014 with an aim to make the country a global manufacturing hub. Replying to a separate question, she said in 2015 the government has received as many as 204 FDI proposals, worth $39.32 billion. In 2016, (till April 22), 64 proposals have been received. In a separate reply, she said the top ten states that have implemented industrial entrepreneurs memoranda(IEMs) during January 2015 to March this year include Maharashtra (82 worth Rs 53,438 crore), Gujarat (117 worth Rs 8,474 crore) and Andhra Pradesh (67 worth Rs 5,560 crore). Stefan Noesen Authentic Jersey
Why talk to only Flipkart, Amazon, Snapdeal? We need help too, online vendors tell PMO
Sellers on online marketplaces have written to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) demanding regulations to safeguard their rights and help resolve their issues with ecommerce giants that claim all the credit for the online shopping boom in recent years, largely on the back of deep discounting. “We are not being called for discussion by your (government) agencies. But you are calling Bansals and Bahls of the world,” said the petition by All India Online Vendors Association (AIOVA), referring to Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal of Flipkart and Kunal Bahl of Snapdeal. The PMO has forwarded the petition to the ecommerce section of the department of electronics and information technology (DeitY) under the communications and IT ministry. The petition and the action taken by the PMO have been put on the grievance redressal portal of the department of administrative reforms and public grievances. Sellers on online marketplaces have been complaining that they are being penalised because buyers are increasingly returning merchandise, adding to their operational costs. Marketplaces are not sharing logistics costs or returning commissions in case a customer opens the package and then returns the item, some online vendors said on condition of anonymity. They have also been complaining of pending payments and increased charges for advertising on ecommerce portals. “Our biggest problem is that companies force us to use their logistics services and warehouses. They also charge us wrongly for weight of the products. The companies also disclose our strategic discount pricing to other sellers, which spoils the chances of increased sales,” said a seller who requested not to be named. Top online marketplaces Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal did not respond to ET’s email seeking their comment as of press time Tuesday. The vendors association in its petition to the PMO said that despite several requests to meet various government departments, none of them have agreed to hear their problems. “We want to seek your time for an appointment and educate you on why you should have an ecommerce ministry and a regulatory body for ecommerce just like IRDA, SEBI, RBI, etc.,” it said. AIOVA is a group of 500 medium- to large sellers on various online marketplaces with turnovers up to Rs 100 crore. “We have been requesting the big ecomm companies to meet us and help in resolving issues. However, they take very little interest in our problems,” said an AIOVA official. Bradley Pinion Womens Jersey
Armanco plans stake in Indian oil refineries
Armanco is planning to purchase stakes in Indian oil refining and petrochemical projects. Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Monday said the Saudi Arabian Oil Company Armanco is planning to purchase stakes in Indian oil refining and petrochemical projects. Pradhan met Khalid al-Falih, Chairman of Armanco, and asked for Saudi’s investment in a planned 1.2 million barrels per day (BPD) refinery for the expansion of Dahej’s Bina refinery and petro-chemicals. In order to meet the country’s growing oil demand, Bharat Petroleum Corporation, Indian Oil Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation are planning to build a 1.2 million BPD refinery in the country’s West Coast, costing more than Rs.1 trillion. In Central India, Bharat Oman Refineries Limited is increasing the capacity of Bina Refinery by 30%, while in Western Gujarat, OPAL, which is majorly owned by Oil and Natural Gas Ltd., is building a petrochemical plant. Amin Nasser, CEO of Armanco said the company is looking forward to expanding and distributing its investment in India, Malaysia, Vietnam, China and Indonesia. Armanco said, India would be the major driving force in the energy consumption by 2014, with its oil consumption rising by 6 million BPD to 10 million BPD. India is one of the largest consumers of crude oil, and it imports 80% of the total oil requirement. During the first quarter, India imported about 21% of its total requirement from Saudi Arabia. 889,000 BPD was sent from Saudi Arabia to India in the first quarter. Andre Johnson Jersey
Four Laning of National Highway 91
Ghaziabad to Aligarh section of Ghaziabad – Aligarh – Kanpur National Highway No. 91 is in good condition and from Aligarh to Kanpur, it is being maintained in motorable condition through maintenance work. Out of total length of 126.30 kms of NH-91 between Ghaziabad and Aligarh, 4-laning in 121 kms has been completed. For 4-laning of Aligarh to Kanpur section of this National Highway, preparation of detailed project report (DPR) is in progress. The remaining work of 4-laning of 5.30 kms length between Ghaziabad and Aligarh is likely to be completed by December, 2016 after resolving the bottlenecks on account of availability of hindrance free land. As regards 4-laning of Aligarh to Kanpur section, it is premature to indicate the date of completion. David DeCastro Jersey