‘India poised to become one of world’s largest aviation markets’
Driven by a strong passenger traffic growth, India is poised to become one of the largest aviation markets in the world, according to a global body of airports. The Airports Council International (ACI) said that major commercial airports in China, India and Korea remained the major driving forces for the robust air passenger growth in the Asia-Pacific region. “India is also poised to be one of the largest aviation markets in the world in the years to come. “The combination of a move towards a more liberalised market for aviation, coupled with stronger economic fundamentals, helped the country become one of the fastest- growing markets in the world,” ACI said in a release. In June, passenger traffic grew 9.9 per cent in the Asia-Pacific region, higher than 8.8 per cent year-to-date growth rate. As per ACI, international and domestic passenger traffic were strong during the first half of 2016 at 10.1 per cent and 8.2 per cent, respectively. “Major commercial airports in China, India and Korea remained the major driving forces for the robust air passenger growth in the region (+12.1 per cent, +17 per cent and +14.1 per cent, respectively),” the release said. Kelly Hrudey Authentic Jersey
Petroleum ministry strengthening its exploration division with another joint secretary
As part of India’s efforts towards energy security, the ministry of petroleum and natural gas is strengthening its exploration division. To boost this initiative and expedite hydrocarbon exploration in the country’s sedimentary basins, the critical ministry, responsible for meeting the economy’s energy needs, has introduced an additional position of a joint secretary (JS) in the exploration division. The division already has a joint secretary-rank official. This comes in the backdrop of India’s stagnant hydrocarbon production. The government has made energy security one of the primary areas of focus in its economic policy in order to achieve fast and sustainable long-term development. According to a government statement on 22 August, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of Ashish Chatterjee, an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the Tamil Nadu cadre, as the new JS. This was done by “upgrading one vacant post of deputy secretary/director… to JS level for a period of two years”, the statement added. The petroleum ministry will now have six joint secretaries, including the two responsible for exploration. “He (Chatterjee) will be joining as the joint secretary in the exploration division in addition to the existing one,” said a government official requesting anonymity. India has 26 sedimentary basins roughly covering an area of 3.14 million sq. km. Of these, an estimated 75% are yet to be explored. India has total reserves of 763.476 million ton (MT) of crude oil and 1,488.73 billion cubic metre (BCM) of natural gas. Another government official, who also didn’t want to be identified, confirmed the development. The Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government has made energy security one of the cornerstones of its economic policy in order to achieve fast and sustainable long-term development. The government has set up an ambitious target to halve the country’s energy imports by 2030. Given India’s plan to reduce its import dependence, domestic production will have to step up exponentially. India currently has 310 production sharing contracts. Experts think it is a good move. “The exploration division has been historically weak. It will be good to expand it. There are large agendas in place such as hydrocarbon exploration and licensing policy, and the auction of small discovered fields, which need to be implemented within a short time frame or the credibility gets hampered,” said R.S. Sharma, former chairman and managing director of state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd. Crude oil and gas production during 2014-15 was 37 MT and 34 BCM, respectively. India currently imports one-third of its energy needs and bought 202.85 MT of crude oil in financial year 2015-16 for Rs.4.16 trillion. The country is actively looking at new exploration and production opportunities to bridge the energy imbalance. Queries emailed to the spokesperson of the ministry of petroleum and natural gas on 24 August wasn’t immediately answered. The government offices are closed on 25 August. India’s demand for energy has been increasing. As per BP Global data, the country has emerged as the third-largest consumer of crude oil with a consumption of 4.2 million barrels per day (mbpd) for calendar year 2015, after the US (19.39 mbpd) and China (11.96 mbpd). India overtook Japan, which consumed 4.15 mbpd. Kyle Quincey Womens Jersey
OMCs shut biodiesel joint ventures due to lack of commercial viability
Once touted as the fuel of the future, biodiesel, extracted from jatropha seeds, has lost its sheen for oil marketing companies. Due to lack of availability and commercial viability, the three oil marketing companies (OMCs)—Indian Oil Corp. Ltd (IOCL), Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd (HPCL)—have shut down the joint ventures companies they had started for jatropha cultivation to manufacture biodiesel. Oil extracted from seeds of the jatropha plant, which can grow on wasteland across the country, is blended with diesel to manufacture biodiesel. Biodiesel is also produced with vegetable oils, the primary feedstock for the fuel, which is scarce. Biodiesel was considered the answer to diesel’s polluting nature and thus was considered an attractive alternative fuel option. IOC, HPCL and BPCL had in 2008-09 planned to take up cultivation of jatropha across more than 180,000 acres in the states of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. IOC and HPCL had formed a joint venture with the Chhattisgarh State Renewable Development Agency (CREDA) to take up large-scale jatropha farming across 74,100 acres and 37,000 acres, respectively. “IndianOil CREDA Bio-Fuels Ltd has not been incorporated in the preparation of consolidated financial statements as the management has decided to exit from these entities and provided for full diminution in the value of investment,” said IOCL in its 2015-16 annual report. The joint venture was incorporated in February 2009 with Indian Oil and CREDA holding 74% and 26% equity, respectively. So far, IOCL has planted jatropha in 8,000 hectares—for biofuel production in the states of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. HPCL in its annual report said, “During 2015-16, in view of non-viability of operations, all business activities of CREDA HPCL Biofuel Ltd (CHBL) including cultivation and maintenance of Jatropha plantations have been suspended.” HPCL holds 74% in CHBL while CREDA holds 26%. BPCL which had formed a company called Bharat Renewable Energy in 2008 for its biofuels needs and has shut down the same. “Due to non-viability, the operations of this company have been closed down from September, 2014,” BPCL said in its 2015-16 annual report. Bharat Renewable Energy was set up in association with Hyderabad-based Nandan Biomatrix—a research and development company—and Shapoorji Pallonji Co., for producing biodiesel from jatropha in Uttar Pradesh across 70,000 acres. The company had plans to invest Rs. 22 billion in the next seven years to produce 1 million tons of biodiesel from jatropha plantations. India, which imports 80% of its oil consumption, envisaged blending of biodiesel with diesel as a measure to cut the import dependence on fossil fuel, enabling it to reduce the oil import bill. The country is targeting a more than seven fold expansion in its biofuels market over the next six years, oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan had said on 10 August. Blending 5% of biodiesel with regular diesel and 10% ethanol with petrol could boost the market to Rs. 500 billion by 2022, from about Rs.65 billion currently. To expand its biofuels market in six years, India would need 6.75 billion liters of biodiesel and 4.5 billion liters of ethanol, Pradhan had said. An industry analyst who offers solutions to bioethanol and biodiesel manufacturing plants, said claims by scientists that jatropha could be planted without water on barren land misled many entities. “A jatropha tree takes seven-eight years to grow. Thus the gestation period is long. Besides, there were assumptions that jatropha should be grown on barren land. Though jatropha survived without water, it did not yield oil. The assumption that it would give oil even without irrigation was misleading. No wonder the ventures of these companies has gone kaput,” he said. Brian Westbrook Authentic Jersey
IOC finds a short cut through Bangladesh to send fuel tankers to Tripura
Indian Oil Corporation will invest around Rs 6.50 billion in expanding its storage and bottling capacity in Tripura over the next three years as it looks to prevent fuel crisis in the state. Indian Oil-AOD, the company’s North East division, will also start moving a convoy of 20 tankers by the end of this month to the North Eastern state for the first time via Bangladesh to avoid the dilapidated NH-44 in Assam. “Apart from exploring new routes to supply fuel for ending the crisis in Tripura, we are looking to increase the storage capacity in the state. We are working on both the possibilities so that common people do not suffer there,” Indian Oil Corporation Executive Director (Indian Oil-AOD) Dipankar Ray told PTI. For this purpose, the company will set up one Petroleum, Oil and Lubricant (POL) depot and a new bottling plant in Agartala, he added. “The POL depot will incur an investment of around Rs 5 billion, while Rs 1.43 billion have been estimated for setting up the bottling plant over the next 2-3 years. The investment includes land cost as well and the land parcels have already been identified for both the units,” Ray said. In Tripura, the company has a POL depot at Dharmanagar with a capacity of around 6,000 kilo litre (kl) and an LPG bottling plant at Bishalgarh with a capacity of 30,000 million tons per annum in double shifts. “The existing two facilities are not enough to cater to the growing demand of fuel in Tripura. So we have decided to expand our capacities by setting up new units. “The new POL depot will have an installed capacity of 32,000 kl, while that for the bottling plant will be 60,000 million tons a year, expandable up to 1,20,000 million tons,” he added. During monsoon in May-June this year, Tripura faced unprecedented fuel crisis as supply was badly hit due to pathetic road condition of NH-44 at Barak Valley in Assam and thousands of tankers were stranded on roads for weeks. The situation forced IOCBSE 0.95 % and Tripura government to scout for alternate ways to supply fuel in addition to augment the storage capacity. “One of the options that we already started is roll-on roll-off, where tankers are transported by open rail wagons from Bhanga in Assam to Churaibari in Tripura. However, this system is not economical for us as transporting 24 tankers one way cost us Rs 3,90,000,” Ray said. Jonathan Allen Jersey
KG Basin cost GSPC 12 times estimate
The Public Enterprise Committee of the Gujarat assembly chaired by former minister, BJP MLA Narottam Patel, has criticised the Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC) for showing undue haste in acquiring the KG basin through aggressive bidding which had caused the state government loss of millions of rupees. The committee has noted in its report that against the estimated expenditure of US $109.70 million, the GSPC had actually incurred an expenditure of US $1,404.86 million for three phases of gas exploration. This was 12.81 times higher than what was estimated while placing the bids. The committee did not accepted the company’s excuse that when exploration was planned, the price of crude oil was $22 to $24 a barrel but it had shot up to US $140 by the time the actual work started. The committee’s report states: “The company did not evaluate the technical consultant’s advice and jumped in with a very high bid.” The latest report of the committee tabled on Tuesday is based on the Comptroller and Auditor General’s (CAG) observations about the GSPC for the year 2010-11. The committee has accepted the CAG observation that massive financial irregularities had taken place in the GSPC. Prior to deciding the bid, the technical and financial risks were not assessed properly and a very high bidding price was quoted. “As a result, during the 2006 to 2011 period alone, the company’s unsecured debt had increased to Rs. 21.4053 billion,” the report says. The estimated total loss to the state due to GSPC’s gas exploration misadventures in the past one decasde is around Rs. 300 billion. The committee scrutinises observations of the CAG on PSUs and suggests recommendations to the state government. For last several years, the state’s BJP government had tried to shirk responsibility by claiming that CAG’s observations were not certified by the assembly’s committee but this year the state government is left with no excuse. The report also accepts the CAG’s observation that the GSPC had partnered with the controversial company, GeoGlobal Resource, in an arrangement that posed no risk to the latter. “The committee is amused how the GSPC could partner with GGR only in profit but not in loss. It’s a totally unacceptable commercial decision,” the committee’s report says. Further, due to the faulty advice of GeoGlobal, the projected Rs. 5.3194 billion cost had increased to a massive Rs. 62.6568 billion, the report says. The committee has also asked the government to explain whether it knew of such a faulty deal. The committee, which monitors state-run public sector undertakings (PSUs), is yet to assess the CAG reports on GSPC from 2011 to 2015. It is expected that the committee will find more and bigger skeletons in the GSPC cupboard in the coming days. Ryan O’Reilly Jersey
Union Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of Maharashtra and Airports Authority of India sign MOU on Regional Connectivity Scheme
The Ministry of Civil Aviation, State Government of Maharashtra and Airports Authority of India today signed a tri-partite Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), thereby kicking off the collaborative process of the three agencies coming together for successful launch of the Regional Connectivity Scheme. The MOU was signed at Mumbai in the presence of Hon’ble Minister of Civil Aviation Sh. Ashok Gajapathi Raju and the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Maharashtra Sh. Devendra Fadnavis. With today’s development, the State Government of Maharashtra has formally agreed to provide the concessions required from the State Governments in the Regional Connectivity Scheme, thereby becoming the first state in the country to do so. The agreement was signed by Chairman, Airports Authority of India, Principal Secretary Civil Aviation (Maharashtra) and Joint Secretary (Ministry of Civil Aviation). Earlier during the day, Sh. Raju and Sh. Fadnavis discussed various other aviation related issues in the State of Maharashtra at length. The meeting was attended by Sh. R. N. Choubey, Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Sh Swadheen Kshatriya, Chief Secretary of the State and other officials. Amongst others, the subject of rehabilitation of slums (that have come up right next to the Mumbai International Airport) was deliberated upon in details. Early operationlization of several available airports and airstrips in the State (like Shirdi, Kolhapur, Nasik, Sholapur etc) also figured prominently in the discussions. Later, Sh. Raju undertook an aerial survey of the proposed airport site for Navi Mumbai and took a status briefing from the officers concerned. He laid emphasis on timely completion of the project and conveyed that this can be achieved only if timelines for all sub-activities are adhered to. Sh Raju conveyed that he will be undertaking similar visits to several other States across the country to promote the Regional Connectivity Scheme and discuss other related issues in the States. He expressed hope that several airports in the State will see activity as flights take off from these places as a part of the Regional Connectivity Scheme. Danny Etling Authentic Jersey
Regional connectivity scheme may be delayed
The National Democratic Alliance government’s ambitious regional connectivity scheme (RCS), planned to be operationalised by the year-end, has been delayed and is now expected to take off next year. The government is currently working on framing a roadmap for the RCS that aims to connect remote areas by operationalising unserved and underserved airports. In the first phase, the government plans to make 60 airports operational over the next three years. Of the 60 airports in the first phase, 10 are owned by the state-run Airports Authority of India (AAI) and 50 are owned by state governments. Currently, 65% of India’s air traffic is handled through 12 metro airports. A senior civil aviation ministry official, requesting anonymity, said the final RCS policy will be finalised by the end of this month, but it would take another month to formulate the roadmap for implementing the RCS project. Brandon Mebane Authentic Jersey
India highest growing aviation market, says Minister
Aviation growth in India has gone up to 20 per cent as opposed to China’s nine per cent, making it the highest aviation growth market in the world, Union Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju said here on Sunday. He was speaking to journalists after visiting the memorials of freedom fighters as part of the Centre’s ‘Freedom 70’ initiative. Mr. Raju said that as the country was rapidly growing in the aviation sector, the Central government was keen on sustaining this pace and progress further. To improve connectivity, the Union government had recently come up with the regional connectivity plan which envisaged viability gap funding, he said. The plan was to connect airports. For this, the State government’s participation was necessary. The Centre, he said, had planned to convert 31 “inactive” airports across the country with no flight operations into performing assets besides setting up new airports. In the next two to three years, the Centre might set up around 50 new “no frills” airports to connect the geographically unconnected areas. However, the Centre had not chosen the places for the new airports as yet. Nate Hairston Jersey
UDAY scheme: Power companies still losing 20 paise on every rupee spent on transmission
UDAY, a government scheme aimed at rescuing power distribution companies from their financial mess, may not be an immediate success because the utilities continue to lose at least 20 paise on every rupee spent to send electricity to consumers. However, there has been an improvement, with the average loss on every rupee spent narrowing from 25 paise last year. The loss is on account of increases in expenses and costs, which are not reflected in tariffs, according to a study by rating companies. “If cost components are not reflected in tariffs, utilities cannot recover what they spend for consumers and losses will remain,” said Sabyasachi Majumdar, senior vice president at ICRABSE -0.54 % Ratings. “No matter how many revival schemes are announced, build-up of losses and debt levels will not stop unless these utilities recover what they spend on sending power to consumers’ premises.” The Union Cabinet approved the Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojna, or UDAY, in November to facilitate the financial turnaround and revival of power distribution companies. The scheme seeks to achieve its goals by improving operational efficiencies of the utilities, reducing the cost of power, lowering interest costs and enforcing financial discipline on DISCOMs through alignment with state finances. “In the past, the government helped power distribution companies to write off these losses but they keep on accumulating again because recovery remains less than 100 per cent,” said a senior analyst. The government said in November that the weakest link in the value chain is distribution. It said distribution companies in the country were trapped in a cycle of operational losses that were funded by debt. They had accumulated losses of Rs 3.8 lakh crore and outstanding debt of Rs 4.3 lakh crore in March 2015. The utilities, too, are partly to blame for failing to file revised tariffs with the regulators on time, leading to delays in approvals and the recovery of money spent. This year, 28 of 40 utilities did not file for tariff revisions with the regulator on time. The situation has been deteriorating, with 25 utilities failing to file tariff revisions on time last year and 19 in the previous year. Connor Williams Jersey
Centre keen to tone up power distribution, network infra: CEA
The Centre is on a missionary mode to address the twin challenges of financial revival of distribution companies and reduction of transmission and commercial loss, said SD Dubey, Chairman of the Central Electricity Authority. Delivering his keynote address at the inaugural session of CII’s Energizing South 2016 conference on “Smart – Reliable – Sustainable Power”, Dubey said, “the Centre is keen to increase the efficiency of power distribution system in the country by addressing issues like network infrastructure, and IT enablement. It is also revising and amending technological standards for grid connectivity.” The government’s priority is the efficient and systematic development of generation, transmission, and distribution systems, the three limbs of the power sector. Dubey further said that though India has almost achieved power surplus, the benefits of generation and transmission have not reached consumers due to constraints in distribution. There are several parts of the country still experiencing power cuts, non-availability of power, and supply of non-quality power. India’s power sector has come a long way since Independence. In 1947, India had 1.4 GW of available power but today, the installed capacity has increased to over 300 GW with over 250 million connected consumers. Bob Probert Jersey