Oil block auctions under Hydrocarbon Exploration Licensing Policy by early next year
India will likely begin auctioning its major oil and gas blocks early next year under its fresh Hydrocarbon Exploration Licensing Policy (HELP) that heralds a major shift from the previous policy by bringing in revenue sharing between companies and the government, offering companies the option to carve out blocks, and the freedom to market gas. “We are currently working on the procedures and the methodologies to help operationalise the new policy. his should be ready by early next year, which is when we will allow companies to bid under this,” said an oil ministry official, who didn’t want to be named. In March, the government notified the new hydrocarbon policy, replacing the NELP, or New Exploration Licensing Policy that guided Indian hydrocarbon space for more than a decade. Some of the key changes the new policy introduced include just one license for extraction of all forms of hydrocarbons,. freedom to market gas, and a revenue-sharing system that puts an end to micromanagement by bureaucrats and the accompanying acrimony between the government and the contractor. The officials at the oil ministry and its technical arm, the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons, are now figuring out every operational detail for a smooth launch of HELP. The oil ministry is currently managing the auction of 67 small discovered oil and gas fields for which roadshows are being organized. The policy for these small fields also offer freedom to market gas and a revenue sharing model and this bid round will test the key policy measures’ attractiveness for investors. The experience gathered in holding the discovered small field bid round will come handy in preparing the most optimal procedure for operationalising HELP, the oil ministry official said. Once the procedure is ready, companies can submit an initial expression of interest indicating the area which they wish to take up for exploration. Following this, the government will put this area up for auction and the highest bidder will be granted the right to explore. Just because someone has first identified the area for exploration will not grant him any special right to obtain exploration license. Alexandre Texier Jersey
Iran ready to raise oil output to 4 million bpd depending on demand -NIOC
Iran is ready to raise its oil production to 4 million barrels per day (bpd) in a couple of months depending on market demand, a senior official from the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) said on Monday. “We can increase crude production based on market requirement,” Seyed Mohsen Ghamsari, the director for international affairs at NIOC said at the Argus Crude Forum. The OPEC producer is currently producing a little over 3.8 million bpd, Ghamsari said. Evan Longoria Womens Jersey
India allocates imported gas to nine stranded power plants
Nine stranded power plants with an installed capacity of 5.070 GW in southern India have been allocated 9.93mn m³/day of imported natural gas after a reverse e-auction process, India’s power ministry said September 3. It was the fourth phase of auctions intended to use gas-fired capacity more. These plants would generate 8.81bn kilowatt-hours for delivery from October 1 to March 31, 2017. The grid connected gas based power generation capacity in the country is 24.150 GW. Of this, 14.3 GW had no supply of domestic gas. These comprise 29 plants which were eligible to participate in the auction process held on September 3, of which 14 plants with a cumulative installed capacity of 7.575 GW participated in the latest round. Indian power plants are using more gas as the price is low. LNG imports have witnessed strong growth during the first four months of fiscal year 2017. Cumulative imports during April-July were 8.092bn m³, up almost by 22% on the same period last year. Imports in July were, however, marginally lower at 1.96bn m³, down 3.8% compared with the same month last year. The cost of importing LNG has dropped sharply this year after New Delhi signed a revised long term contract with Doha. Qatar is the largest supplier of LNG to India. Given the backdrop of low global LNG prices, Petronet LNG insisted on renegotiating its long term contract with RasGas. In December and the two parties revised their deal, which now takes the three-month average figure of Brent crude oil, replacing a five-year average of a basket of crude imported by Japan. Pavel Bure Authentic Jersey
IOC submits bid to enter local market with MPPE
Indian Oil Corporation has submitted a bid to enter the fuel retailing market in Myanmar, the Business Standard newspaper reported on September 3. “We have submitted a bid to start retail outlets and also set up LPG plants in Myanmar,” Mr Anish Aggarwal, director (pipelines) at IOC, India’s biggest state-owned refinery operator, told the New Delhi-based newspaper. The report said state-owned Myanma Petroleum Products Enterprise had last year invited private companies to form a joint venture for importing, storing, distributing and selling all petroleum products. A report in April said the joint venture agreement would be for 30 years, with the possibility of two 10-year extensions, with MPPE holding a 51 percent share. IOC is the second Indian state-owned refining company to express interest in entering the fuel market in Myanmar in recent weeks. The Numaligarh Refinery at Morangi in Assam was in talks with the Myanmar government to export up to 500,000 tons of petrol a year, Bloomberg reported on August 18. The facility is a subsidiary of India’s second-biggest state-owned refiner, Bharat Petroleum Corp. The Bloomberg report quoted London-based BMI Research as saying Myanmar imported more than 60 percent of its refined fuel and three domestic refineries capable of producing 57,000 barrels a day operated at 30 percent capacity in 2015. BMI Research estimated that fuel consumption in Myanmar would expand at an average of six percent a year between 2016 and 2020, outpacing Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand. Austin Hooper Authentic Jersey
Unit 2 of Kudankulam to start commercial operation from Dec
The second unit of Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant, which was connected to the southern grid last week, is scheduled to begin commercial operation in December this year. The unit with the Russian-designed VVER-1000 reactor was synchronised with the southern grid on August 29 and has been generating about 245 MWe. The connection of the second unit brings India’s installed nuclear generating capacity to 6,780 MWe. Excavation for Kudankulam units 3 and 4 is in progress and first concrete for the new units will be poured in March next year, Rosatom, the Russian counterpart of India’s Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) said. The units 3 and 4 will begin power production by 2022-2023. Construction of the unit 2 was completed in July, 2015 and was loaded with fuel in May, 2016. Following safety tests, it attained criticality on 10 July. The Kudankulam first unit achieved first criticality in mid-2013, was connected to the grid in October, 2013 and began commercial operation in December, 2014. Kudankulam units 1 and 2 have been built by Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd. (NPCIL). These are operated by NPCIL under IAEA safeguards, with supervision from Russian specialists. Enriched uranium fuel for the entire life of the plant is to be supplied by Russia. Kenneth Faried Jersey
IOC plans to double refining capacity by 2030
Indian Oil Corp (IOC), the nation’s largest oil company, plans to nearly double refining capacity to 150 million tonnes by 2030 to meet fast expanding energy needs of the country, its Chairman B Ashok said. The company has capacity at refineries to produce 80.7 million tonnes per annum of fuel currently. “IOC is self-sufficient in the refining segment, but keeping in view the rising demand for petroleum products in the short-term, we are aiming at a refining capacity of about 100-110 million tonnes per annum by the year 2022 and progressively scale it up to at least 150 million tonnes by the year 2030,” he said. International Energy Agency’s World Energy Outlook projects 4 per cent CAGR growth in India’s fuel demand to 348 million tonnes by 2030, from 184 million tonnes in 2015-16. BP projects demand to be 335 million tonnes while EIA has pegged it at 294 million tonnes, which translates into a CAGR of 3 per cent. India has a refining capacity of 232.06 million tonnes. “Our core business is liquid fuels, LPG, lubes, petrochemicals and natural gas. With the prognosis that fossil fuels will continue to dominate the energy mix till the year 2040, we have a fairly large window of opportunity to profitably expand in our core business while at the same time getting ready for the low-carbon economy of the future,” he said IOC will expand its refining capacity to 104.55 million tonnes by 2022 from the current 80.7 million tonnes per annum with an investment of about Rs 40,000 crore. It is looking to scale up its Koyali refinery in Gujarat to 18 million tonnes from 13.7 million tonnes while capacity of the Panipat refinery in Haryana will be raised by a quarter to 20.2 million tonnes from the current 15 million tonnes. A 3-million tonnes capacity addition each is planned for Uttar Pradesh’s Mathura and Bihar’s Barauni refineries, which will take their capacity to 11 million tonnes and 9 million tonnes, respectively. The recently-commissioned 15 million tonnes Paradip refinery in Odisha will see a capacity addition of 5 million tonnes while about 3 million tonnes will be added in IOC’s Digboi and Bongaigaon refineries in the North-East. He, however, did not give details of the expansions that will take the capacity to 150 million tonnes. Ashok said IOC is also expanding its pipeline and retail network. “We have 45,000-plus customer touch points as of now and this number will go up further in the next five years, especially in rural and virgin markets in order to secure the first mover advantage,” he said. Also, a Strategy Cell has been set up, which is preparing roadmaps for future growth of IOC as an energy business amid multiple scenarios, he added. Shaquill Griffin Authentic Jersey
Ministers to lay foundation stone for Jodhpur civil airport expansion work
The civil aviation minister and defence minister will visit Jodhpur to lay the foundation stone of the first phase of expansion work of Jodhpur Civil Airport, which will begin by the end of this month. Besides, they will also inaugurate the Instrumental Landing System (ILS) and a 100 KW solar plant installed at the airport. According to the IAF officials, the work of installation of ILS is in progress and would be completed around September 20. Moreover, it is the only airport to have introduced 24 hours free 4G Wi Fi connectivity in state. Director (Airport) S K Singh, while addressing the advisory committee meeting on Saturday, said the first phase of the expansion work, which would begin by end of this month, would comprise construction of apron, parking and taxi link from runway to the apron at a cost of Rs 36 crore. “With the expansion, the parking capacity will be enhanced to 9 aircraft from the existing 3. Also the car parking, which has current capacity of a meagre 70, would shoot up to 500,” said Singh, adding that this would be the second multilevel car parking in entire North India after New Delhi. Referring to the issue of bringing more flights to Jodhpur, MP (Jodhpur) Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said that many airline companies have expressed interest in operating from Jodhpur but all of them have been waiting for the installation of ILS. Filip Chytil Womens Jersey
Surti fliers pin their hopes on intra-state air service’s success
With Gujarat signing up for Centre’s regional air-connectivity scheme, Surtis are looking at a major overhaul of Surat airport in the coming months. It is expected that the national carrier, Air India will show interest in the scheme as it already operates CRJ aircraft on Surat-Mumbai route. Airports Authority of India (AAI) officials believe many private airlines will be attracted towards Surat and other cities in the state under the regional air-connectivity scheme. Airport director, Surat airport, Pramod Kumar Thakre, told TOI, “The regional air-connectivity scheme would prove to be beneficial to the Diamond City. With central and state governments offering perks to the airlines in VAT, ATF and viability gap funding (VGF), they will be more than happy to set up operations in Surat too.” Thakre added, “With the 2,905-metre runway likely to be completed by January 2017, there are massive opportunities for the fliers in Diamond City. Surat airport will be classified as 4D airport, like the one in Ahmedabad.” For the passengers, the proposal of a fare cap of Rs 2,500 an hour of flight on regional routes would be a game changer. Though, the airlines are not convinced with the fare cap, they will have to accept it as decided under the scheme. Harold Carmichael Jersey
NTPC, IIT-M sign agreement for R&D
Power generator NTPC Ltd and IIT Madras have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for research and development in areas such as bulk ash utilisation, carbon capture, waste to energy, gypsum building and grid stability. As per the MoU, joint research projects will be taken up by both the organisations for development of new technologies, process and product for optimisation and efficiency improvements. NTPC is India’s largest generator of power with an installed generation capacity of 47,000 Megawatt including 6,900 Mw contributed by its Joint Ventures and subsidiaries. Todd Bertuzzi Jersey
Agra tops country in power theft; line losses at 30%
The city of Taj Mahal has earned the dubious distinction of leading urban centres across the country in the number of power thefts recorded in the past year. A total of 2,182 FIRs were registered here against power pilferers, followed by Kanpur with 1,409 and Ghaziabad with 1,308 cases. All three urban centres came above Delhi, where 1,121 power theft cases were filed, according to the national crime records bureau (NCRB). The line loss in the city due to such thefts is a massive 29.6%, the report added. Among states, Uttar Pradesh leads in the country with a staggering 57,193 cases, which is 58% of all 97,591 power theft cases reported in the country. It is followed by Haryana (18,598) and West Bengal (8,998). Other four Uttar Pradesh cities which find mention in the NCRB report are Varanasi (471), Meerut (418), Allahabad (394) and the state capital Lucknow (204). SC Bharti, director (technical), Dakshinanchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam Ltd (DVVNL), said, “The problem of power theft is quite rampant in the whole of UP, but our endeavour is to minimize the losses. Besides conducting raids, we also hold camps to provide power connections to people. The trend of power theft in Agra has gone down over the years.” DVVNL is responsible for power distribution in 21 districts of Uttar Pradesh, including Agra, Mathura, Mainpuri, Aligarh, Firozabad and Kanpur among others. According to Torrent Power, the private electricity distribution company which has been working in Agra for the past six years, they have brought down the number of theft cases and line loss considerably ever since they took over. “In 2010, when we took over the power distribution, the line loss was 58% (67% unofficially). It has been brought down to 29.6% and our target is to reach 26% by the end of this year,” a spokesperson of Torrent told TOI. During an anti-theft drive last year, DVVNL lodged over 7,200 FIRs and collected Rs 75 crore in arrears in just 25 days. As part of the distribution body’s “one-time settlement scheme”, which aimed at regularising illegal connections, Agra division had stood first in generating the maximum revenue of Rs 120 crore from rural areas and Rs 50 crore from urban areas. Rod Langway Womens Jersey