Qatar’s dispute with Arab states lifts oil prices, may impact LNG supplies
Saudi Arabia and key allies on Monday cut ties with Qatar, the world’s top seller of liquefied natural gas (LNG), accusing it of supporting extremism and sending shockwaves through the energy industry. Saudi Arabia, along with the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Bahrain said they would sever all ties including transport links with Qatar, which also sells oil products like condensate but is not a big crude oil exporter. “(Qatar) embraces multiple terrorist and sectarian groups aimed at disturbing stability in the region, including the Muslim Brotherhood, ISIS (Islamic State) and al-Qaeda, and promotes the message and schemes of these groups through their media constantly,” Saudi state news agency SPA said. The rift did not immediately affect tanker shipments, but benchmark Brent crude futures prices rose around 1 per cent to over $50 per barrel on concerns about a widening rift in the Arab world. The move comes as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), of which Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar are members, recently agreed to extend crude oil production cuts in order to tighten the market and pop up prices. It was not immediately clear how the political crisis would affect policy-making at OPEC, of which Saudi Arabia as the world’s biggest crude exporter is seen as the de-facto leader. A Saudi oil industry source said the action was unlikely to have a large impact on OPEC decision making, noting that other political disputes within the group, including between Saudi Arabia and Iran, had not prevented OPEC from agreeing on oil policy. LNG IMPACT UNCLEAR Traders said it was too early to say if the dispute would have any impact on LNG shipment within the region, with both Egypt and the UAE taking regular cargoes from Qatar. Qatar meets almost a third of global LNG demand and Egypt, which struggles to meet its electricity needs, has imported an average 857,000 cubic metres per month of LNG from Qatar since January 2016, according to shipping data in Thomson Reuters Eikon. The fuel is used largely for power generation. Egypt last year awarded a large tender for 2017 supplies, much of it sourced from Qatar, although traders said rising domestic output and alternative sources including Norway, Nigeria and the United States could fill a potential gap. The UAE has imported on average 190,000 cubic metres of LNG per months from Qatar since January 2016. Traders pointed out, however, that other members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) like Kuwait, which often fall in line with decisions made by Saudi Arabia, have not, at least for now, taken action against Qatar. Kuwait has imported on average 283,000 cubic metres of LNG per month from Qatar since 2016, the data shows. Shipments to the world’s biggest LNG buyers in Asia are unlikely to be affected, barring a major escalation, importers said. “I don’t think there will be any impact on it. We get gas directly from Qatar by sea,” R.K. Garg, head of finance at Indian LNG importer Petronet, told Reuters when asked to comment on the coordinated move to cut relations. India is the second-biggest buyer of Qatari LNG, according to energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie, after Japan. A Japanese LNG trader also said he did not expect immediate supply disruptions. Qatar is also a major exporter of condensate, an ultra-light form of crude oil, as well as liquefied patroleum gas (LPG), with most supplies of the two fuels going to Japan and South Korea under long-term supply contracts. Malcolm Subban Jersey
India’s Petronet: no impact on Qatar LNG as Saudi, others cut ties
India’s Petronet LNG said on Monday it did not expect any impact on gas supplies from Qatar after Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain severed ties with the Gulf Arab state accusing it of supporting terrorism. “I don’t think there will be any impact on it. We get gas directly from Qatar by sea,” R.K. Garg, head of finance at Petronet, told Reuters when asked to comment on the coordinated move to cut relations. Petronet LNG, India’s biggest gas importer, buys 8.5 million tonnes a year of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Qatar under along-term contract. It also buys additional volumes from Qatar under spot deals. Will Compton Womens Jersey
Shell Lubricants to lean on smaller business segments to achieve target
Shell Lubricants is planning to focus on some of the segments where it has comparitively less presence so far, in order to achieve its target of becoming the largest international lubricant player in the country in the next three years. The company is already a leading player in wind turbines, construction and general manufacturing, but has a small presence, with less than one per cent market share, in segments such as petrochemicals, fertilisers, textiles and defence. The plans are to increase the market share in these sectors to five per cent in next three years, said Siva Kasturi, global OEM Manager-India and South East Asia, Shell Lubricants. “At this point of time we are heavily focusing on general manufacturing, construction and power. We wanted to continue our technology leadership in primarily the defence application and we want to focus more on mining and power business as well,” he said. In industrial lubricants market, the company has a five per cent marketshare in India. National oil companies are the major players in this segment as of now. The company is working with around 400-500 OEMs in the country. In order to increase its market share across the sectors, the company is working on various activities including campaign among its customers on aspects such as total cost of ownership, where the company claims an advantage. Kasturi said that the lack of awareness on the total cost of ownership is a factor in companies spending more money on their equipment. Shell Lubricants is planning to focus on new segments to achieve its target of becoming the largest international player in the country in the next three years. The company is a leading player in wind turbines, construction and general manufacturing, while it has a small presence, in petrochemicals, fertilisers, textiles and defence. The plans are to increase market share in these segments to 5 per cent in three years, according to Siva Kasturi, global OEM Manager, India and Southeast Asia, Shell Lubricants. “We are focusing on general manufacturing, construction and power. We want to continue our technology leadership in defence and we want to focus more on mining and power,” he said. The company has a 5 per cent market share in industrial lubricants. The state-owned oil companies dominate this segment. Shell is working on a campaign to highlight total cost of ownership, where the company claims an advantage. Kasturi said lack of awareness about the total cost of ownership was a reason why companies spent more on their equipment. Alex Burmistrov Womens Jersey
Confidence’s gesture towards city
Confidence Group company, Confidence Petroleum India Ltd, had decided to introduce Go Gas Auto LPG in every part of the country, informed Vimal Parwal, Group President, while talking to the media on Saturday. “At present, we are operating with 110 LPG pumps throughout the country. On this Environment Day, i.e. June 5, the company will try to establish 25 LPG pumps in the city. We wish to make the city pollution free and request the people of the city to convert their vehicles into LPG. We are also pledging to convert autos of the city into LPG like that of Bengaluru. Running vehicles on LPG will not only keep the city pollution free, but also save 50 per cent money,” Parwal said. A P Murty, Vice-President said, “If all autos are made to run on LPG mandatorily, the air pollution will be controlled in big way. Sameer Muley, Deputy General Manager-Communication, warned that people must not use domestic LPG gas in vehicles. “One must put proper kit to convert vehicle into LPG and use the LPG from filling stations as the vehicle LPG has right combination of Propane and Butane required for the vehicles.” Miami Dolphins Jersey
A.P. will be gas-driven State in about 5 years: ONGC official
ONGC’s Rajamahendravaram Asset Manager and Executive Director Debashis Sanyal said on Saturday that Andhra Pradesh would become a gas-driven State in the next four to five years if it used the ONGC gas in a meaningful manner. Addressing the annual media conference here, he said that by 2021 gas production from the Odalarevu landfall point would be 20,000 million cubic metres per annum, which was 10 times the present production. He said they had machines and pipelines of international standards and assured safety and security in their operational area to all the people and their properties, including land. He said they had 700 km of gas pipeline which was intact and small repairs were carried out at some places. Sanyal said the ONGC had technology to lay pipelines beneath the fish and prawn culture ponds but were facing challenges in land acquisition in villages. The Executive Director said ONGC, Rajahmahendravaram, had chalked out plans to increase production of oil and gas by 22% and 11% respectively in the next three years. It would mean 60-100 million metric standard cubic metres of gas and 70,000 tons of oil per annum. He said the Government of India had started auctioning the Discovered Small Fields (DSF) and small operators were giving inputs in producing oil and gas in a big way. The Rajahmahendravaram Asset was producing 890 tons of oil per day and 2.34 mmscmd (million metric standard cubic metres of gas per day). In the current fiscal, the gas production was likely to reach 1,000 mmscmd and oil 0.365 million metric tons. The Asset was mobilising additional resources and rigs to drill 46 exploratory wells and 38 development wells in the next four years. Exploitation of wells Referring to the Kesanapally (Krishna district) find, he said it was an old productive field discovered in 1996 with a depth of 2,500 metres. In 2015, with the help of new technology and reinterpretation of data, drilling was undertaken from the existing well and a new oil zone was discovered. The new zone had the potential of 2.94 million metric tons and gas of about 0.6 billion cubic feet. Seven wells would be drilled in 2017-18 in Kesanapally with an expected production of 150 tons per day. Mr. Sanyal said the Nagayalanka field ground work had been completed and the mining lease from the state government was awaited. Drilling was progressing fast in the Bantumilli field near the Bhimavaram exploratory well. On the CSR front, the ONGC’s unit had spent Rs. 140 million in 2016-17 in East, West Godavari and Krishna districts and Rs. 150 million had been earmarked for 2017-18. General Manager Operations Kamaraju said that the onland area of the KG Basin consisted of 28,000 sq.km. and offshore 24,000 sq.km. The asset was exploiting the hydrocarbon resources from onland alone. Tom Savage Authentic Jersey
Govt goes digital to speed up land acquisition for highway projects
The process of acquiring land for highway projects is set to get shorter by at least six months. The entire process will go digital eliminating chances of mistakes and reducing the long time taken for verification of land titles. The highways ministry has undertaken a massive exercise of hosting digital details of the land of more than 6.45 lakh revenue villages across 668 districts on a portal named “Bhoomiraashi” or compensation for land acquisition. This will be the one-point platform for online processing of land acquisition and notifications as well. Quicker land acquisitions will accelerate road construction, which is one of the main focus areas of the Narendra Modi government for pushing infrastructure development and creating jobs as well. The ministry has already held workshops with officials of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh to sensitise them about the new scheme of things aimed at expediting the process. At present, the completion of land acquisition takes at least one-and-half years. Delay in land acquisition is the key reason for stuck highway projects across the country. NHAI, road transport ministry and its new wing NHIDCL, (which undertaking works in north-east and Jammu and Kashmir) are the biggest land procurers. Just NHAI on its own undertakes process to acquire 8,000-9,000 hectares of land annually for road development and releases around Rs 20,000 crore every year as compensation to land owners. The speed of acqusition is likely to increase as the government plans to roll out another mega highway development programme named Bharat Mala. Officials said under the new process there will be no physical movement of files from the local land acquisition officer up to the minister. Similarly, the notifications will be issued on digital mode. “Since the land records are available digitally, there is no need for verification by legal officials, which is a time taking process. Similarly, there will be no scope for mistakes during different stages of the notification. Correcting such mistakes delays the process,” a government official said. Sources said the online system will also have a feature of sending SMS alerts to the affected land owners about the updates. For that, they have to provide their numbers to the local land acquisition official. The system software will also enable direct transfer of the compensation to the beneficiaries’ accounts from all the agencies under highways ministry. Natrell Jamerson Jersey
Power generation target for FY18 is 23m units: NLC India
NLC India’s (formerly Neyveli Lignite Corporation) Q4 earnings beat estimates on all parameters as power generation margins improved. Lignite margins however contracted in the quarter. In an interview to CNBC-TV18, SK Acharya, Chairman of NLC India spoke about the results and his outlook for the company. He said that production efficiency led to Q4 earnings performance. According to him, the current performance is sustainable. Speaking about targets, he said that the target for FY18 electricity generation is at 23 million units and lignite production will be around 273 million tonne. He expects lignite capacity to go up to 56 million tonne by 2020. He further said that they have not signed any new power purchase agreement (PPA) yet. Blake Comeau Authentic Jersey
Boeing, Airbus Face Probe in $10.6-Billion Deal With Air India
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered three cases and one preliminary inquiry under sections related to cheating and forgery of Indian Penal Code in the light of orders from the Supreme Court in January this year. The first case has been registered against unknown officials of Ministry of Civil Aviation (Government of India), Air India and unknown private persons to investigate the allegations relating to purchase of 111 aircraft for national airlines costing about Rs. 70,000 crore ($10.6 billion) to benefit foreign aircraft manufactures. Such a purchase caused an alleged financial loss to the already stressed national carriers,” a CBI statement said. The CBI has also said that it has registered case against government officials, Air India and private companies to investigate the allegations of leasing of large number of aircraft without due consideration, proper route study and marketing or price strategy. “It was also alleged that the aircrafts were leased even while aircraft acquisition program was going on,” CBI added. Air India is facing heavy losses and has a debt of approximately $7.8 billion. It is alleged that with the collusion of private players, officials had made arrangements in such a way that Air India flew its aircraft on loss-making routes. The CBI is also investigating the charges of giving up profit-making routes and profit-making timings of Air India in favor of national and international private airlines causing a huge loss to the national carrier. With 140 long-haul fleet, Air India controls 17% market share on international routes and 14.6% of domestic passenger market. Due to continuous losses, Indian government is considering to sell it to private players. “Today, what has happened is (Air India’s) market share is 14%. And the debt is $7.8 billion. Now there are private airlines that are flying — Indigo, GoAir, Spicejet, Jet Airways — there you don’t invest money. But to run Air India, you have invested $7.8 billion. That money is government’s money, that’s your money. It could have been used for school education. And if 86% of flying can be handled by private sector, so it can also handle 100%,” Indian finance minister Arun Jaitley said a few days back. Lance Stephenson Womens Jersey
Boosting renewable energy sources requires gas too -Con Edison
Shifting more U.S. energy production to renewable sources such as wind and solar power is doable but will require greater use of natural gas and overcoming opposition to building pipelines, a senior executive of a U.S. utility said on Thursday. Consolidated Edison Inc no longer defaults to the traditional utility solution of building more infrastructure to meet growing demand for power, said Craig Ivey, president of the company unit serving New York City and nearby suburbs. Con Edison believes in clean, low-carbon energy, but a balance must be found to satisfy environmental goals, he told an audience of New York real estate brokers. Boosting the production of wind, solar and other alternative sources to meet a goal of generating half of New York’s energy needs by 2030 cannot be done without natural gas, Ivey said. “It is simply not possible to provide all the energy we need for our residents and businesses with wind, solar, battery storage and other alternative methods,” Ivey said in a speech to the Real Estate Board of New York. Con Edison would need tens of billions of dollars in transmission and distribution system upgrades beyond the levels needed to meet the state’s Clean Energy Standard, Ivey said. The company has reduced its carbon footprint since 2005 by 48 percent and in the past six years, 6,600 large buildings in New York City have converted to natural gas. A debate has simmered in New York and New England about whether more pipelines are needed to enable natural gas to be the bridge fuel from coal and oil-fired power plants to cleaner renewable sources like wind and solar. Environmentalists and New York state have taken the position that new pipelines, like Williams Cos Inc’s proposed Constitution gas pipe from Pennsylvania to New York, are not needed. They would invest more in renewables and energy efficiency. The gas industry argues that more plants are needed to replace retiring coal and nuclear plants, such as Indian Point just north of New York City, before more wind and solar projects can be built. Indian Point will close in 2020 and 2021. Tyler Thornburg Jersey
Power sector lender PFC allays fears on stressed assets
Power Finance Corp (PFC) on Thursday tried to allay fears of rising stressed assets on its books, saying that it was caused by the lender’s decision to apply new central bank rules and not because of any sudden deterioration in asset quality. The company will expand into refinancing and launch special financial packages for power transmission projects won through competitive bidding, chairman Rajeev Sharma told ET. The state-run company, the largest financier of the power sector, posted a net loss for the fourth quarter and a sharp drop in fiscal 2017 profit as it made a huge retroactive provision against the stressed assets. Sharma, who is also PFC’s managing director, said it would have posted a profit comparable to the previous year of about Rs 6,240 crore in fiscal 2017 had it not made the provision, the impact of which was Rs 3,786 crore. PFC shares have fallen sharply since it announced a quarterly loss for the first time in history. On Monday the company reported a net loss of Rs 3,409.49 crore for the fourth quarter against a net profit of Rs 1,259.65 crore a year earlier. The scrip ended 2.17% down at Rs 130.60 Thursday on the Bombay Stock Exchange. The provisioning was against loans to power generation projects sanctioned before April 2015, Sharma said. PFC has been applying the guidelines spelt by the power ministry for treatment of loans sanctioned to electricity generation projects before April 2015. After a communication from the Reserve Bank last month, the company decided to align with the RBI’s loan restructuring rules with effect from April 2015, following which Rs 23,309 crore of additional assets were declared nonperforming and Rs 35,995 crore were classified as restructured, from the earlier classification as standard. PFC’s gross NPAs shot up to 12.5% of the loan assets at close of the last financial year from 3.15% the previous fiscal year. Sharma said all the additional assets classified as NPAs after the RBI directive belonged to state-run companies which have been servicing debt without default. “We do not see any stress in these loan assets of Rs 59,304 crore affected due to RBI norms as the borrowers have demonstrated 100% recovery rate; they are likely to turn standard over the next few years,” he said. As much as 58% of the restructured assets are commissioned and are expected to be reversed next fiscal year, he added. Had it not applied the RBI guidelines, the company’s NPA position would have improved to 3.01% with the upgrade of four stressed projects to the standard category, he said. PFC’s disbursements grew 35% in the past fiscal year to Rs 62,798 crore, while loan sanctions increased 55% to Rs 1,00,603 crore. The company will expand into refinancing and is developing small tenure loan products for transmission projects bid under tariff-based competitive bidding, Sharma said. Cassius Marsh Womens Jersey