Aviation sector: Centre explores new model for development of airports
The government is considering a new model for development of airports wherein Airports Authority of India (AAI) retains the complete ownership of an airport but privatises most of the services, a senior civil aviation ministry official said. AAI currently owns and runs majority of the airports in the country. But the state-owned entity is a minority equity partner with private companies in Delhi and Mumbai international airports. “In our country, development of airports will be a mixture. Everything to be privatised will be a wrong thing, everything to be nationalised will also be a wrong thing. Public sector has a place, private sector has a place. Now there are other variations also which the government is thinking. Is it not possible for the Airports Authority of India to own a place and privatise services, and having a revenue share? We are working on such a model,” the official said. The National Civil Aviation Policy, 2016, unveiled last month had mentioned the possibility of the AAI giving out operations and maintenance for a cluster of existing or new airports. Out of 125 airports of AAI, about 95 are operational of which 71 have scheduled commercial operations. Delhi and Mumbai airports, which are majority owned by private companies GMR and GVK, respectively, and in which AAI is an equity partner, are currently a major source of revenues for the state-owned entity. AAI owns 26 per cent stake each in Delhi International Airport Ltd and Mumbai International Airport Ltd. The new development model being considered will ensure that the AAI remains the sole or majority owner of the airport to be modernised with most services being outsourced to private firms. The aviation ministry is planning to revive 50 non-operational airports of AAI in the next 3 years at an indicative cost of Rs 50-100 crore each. Sources said the new model may be tried at some of these 50 airports which are being revived. Chris Conley Jersey
AEAPL plans small airports,logistics centres in India
City-based Air Excellence Aviation Private Ltd (AEAPL) which has a tie-up with the cargo aircraft division of Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation is planning to set up small airports and air logistics centres across India. The company founded by Manish Kapoor intends to set up 100 Business Development Areas (BDAs) which will have small airports, and an equal number of air logistics centres (ALC) that comprise airstrips for cargo handling, in the country. “Our idea is to expand air connectivity to tier 2 and 3 cities on a large scale. We will rope in the state governments and private players to execute the projects,” Manish Kapoor, Chairman and Managing Director, AEAPL, told The Hans India. The company will own a majority stake of 51 per cent in 10 BDAs and an equal number of ALCs, while the remaining projects will be taken up with partners who are willing to invest the entire amount. According to him, each of the BDAs and ALCs require an investment of Rs 100 crore and will be able to generate at least 400 jobs. “The land requirement for each project is anywhere between 300 to 400 acres,” Kapoor said. Colorado Avalanche Jersey
Telangana set to build power plants against Centre’s advice
Telangana, which had proposed to aggressively add power generation capacities towards self-sufficiency, has turned down the advice of Union power ministry against new capacities and is now determined to go ahead with imported coal-fired and inefficient subcritical thermal plants. The state has a capacity of 4,365 MW and has proposed to achieve 25,000 MW by the end of 2018, which includes fresh thermal power generation capacity of 4,000 MW that the Union government promised under the AP State Reorganisation Act, 2014. Besides entering into a contentious power purchase agreement (PPA) with the Chhattisgarh government to procure 1,000 MW of power for 12 years, Telangana has awarded contracts for a 1,080 MW project at Manugur in Khammam district and a 4,000 MW plant at Damaracherla in Nalgonda district. Both are coal-fired thermal power projects, each depending on imported coal for at least half of its fuel requirement. The plant at Manugur also relies on subcritical equipment of 280 MW each, which environmentalists say will add to pollution while activists say its expensive operations and maintenance costs will be a burden on the exchequer. Union power minister Piyush Goyal recently asked Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao to either downsize or drop the state’s proposed power plants, given the surplus power capacities and cheaper availability in the domestic market. Goyal on Wednesday repeated his advice to the Telangana government while assuring that state-run thermal power generator NTPC was ready to set up the projects promised under the Act. Of the promised 4,000 MW, NTPC is setting up two units of 800 MW each at Ramagundam and is in talks with the Telangana government for the required land to set up the remaining capacities. But Telangana power and industries secretary Arvind Kumar said the state was neither in favour of trimming down capacities nor dropping the projects. “Keeping in view the projected increase in power consumption by the proposed industrial corridors, the proposed large lift irrigation projects and anticipated increase in agricultural consumption under these irrigation projects, the Telangana government has decided to go ahead with its power capacity additions,” he told ET. “Aimed at uninterrupted power supply for agriculture, industry and domestic consumption, Telangana wants to rely on own and cheaper power generation resources.” However, civil society groups and power consumer forums are crying foul over the alleged arbitrary decisions of the state government on selection of power generation technologies and contractors for new power plants. They have also criticised the PPAs, saying the government has signed them at high costs. They had also challenged these decisions before the state electricity regulatory commission. They point out that the government was not taking advantage of the coal mines in the state for new projects. Though the project at Manugur is a pit-head project, it is using subcritical technology and is also 50 per cent dependent on imported coal, while Damaracherla plant is far away from coal mines, they said. “Given serious rethinking going on across the globe towards adding alternative and sustainable power generation capacities and also given the availability of cheaper electricity, the Telangana government should have a fresh look at its power strategy,” said M Kodandaram, chairman of Telangana Joint Action Committee, an umbrella body of dozens of civil society groups. M Thimma Reddy, convenor of People’s Monitoring Group on Electricity Regulation, accused the Telangana government of resorting to imprudent strategies to address the power deficits. Pointing out that Telangana’s strategy on capacity additions was not matching its power consumption patterns, he said that the power consumption by the agriculture sector in the newly-formed state over the past two years crashed owing to back-to-back droughts and a steep fall in groundwater levels. “The government went ahead with awarding contracts of power plants without adopting the open competitive bidding route and entered into PPAs with various private and public entities without calling for competitive bids, thereby losing on the advantage of procuring power at low tariffs,” said Reddy. “Instead of lowering power purchases from private players when the demand fell significantly during droughts, Telangana had resorted to backing down (lowering plant load factor) at own power generation stations, thereby adversely affecting the finances of state-owned power utilities and burdening the power consumers with high-cost power.” Dino Ciccarelli Jersey
ONGC seeks buyers for deep-water field in KG Basin
Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) is seeking buyers for gas from a new deepwater field in the KG Basin, which will be the first to supply under the new policy that allows companies to charge a much higher rate for output from challenging fields. A well at Vashishta & S1 field off the eastern coast, one of many difficult gas fields that have been allowed by the government to extract higher price, has been producing for about a month, pumping out half a million standard cubic metres a day, said Tapas Kumar Sengupta, director (offshore) at ONGC. The gas produced from this well is currently sold at $3.06 per unit, the government-set price available to domestic natural gas, he said. ONGC wants higher prices, but a global rate collapse may be a hurdle. “This is a test case for ONGC. It is a challenge for ONGC to derive a strategy for getting the right price for all future production from deep water fields,” said Sengupta. Andy Pettitte Jersey
Bhel wins $1.49 billion power plant contract in Bangladesh
State-run Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. (BHEL) has secured a $1.49 billion contract to set up two thermal power plants of 660 mega watt (MW) each for the Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Co. (Pvt.) Ltd, an equal joint venture between India’s NTPC Ltd and Bangladesh Power Development Board. NTPC said in an official statement here that the project to be located at Bagerhat district in Bangladesh will commence power generation in 2019-20. Bhel will be responsible for engineering, procurement and construction. The contract was signed on 12 July in Bangladesh. The project will contribute “immensely to the overall development of Bangladesh especially its power sector,” said the statement. Indian Exim Bank will finance the project called Maitree Super Thermal Power Project, which is the first such project developed by Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Co. and signify the increasing cooperation in the energy sector between the two countries, the statement said. Because of geographic proximity, both the nations have advantages in closer cooperation in energy, infrastructure and trade. For India’s northeastern states, importing many goods from Bangladesh is easier than from the nearest Indian state, West Bengal. Bangladesh is at present buying power from ONGC Tripura Power Co. Ltd. Demarcus Robinson Jersey
Process to get electricity connection made easier: Power Min
Power Ministry today said it has been mandatory to provide an electricity connection within 15 days of application as part of steps taken in last two years to ease the process of getting connections. “Ministry of Power has undertaken several reforms measures to ease the process of ‘Getting Electricity’ over a period of last two years. These measures will drastically reduced the time taken for getting an electricity connection and will benefited citizens and industry alike,” Power Ministry said in a statement. It has been made mandatory to provide electricity connection within 15 days to the consumers in normal conditions, it added. A simplified procedure for getting electricity connection has been adopted after detailed discussions with Delhi and Maharashtra Discoms and other concerned agencies. Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) has made the necessary changes to allow Low Tension connection up to 150 KVA and had also rationalized the tariff for the same in 2015. The Ministry has also stipulated time for each step in providing the connection. Within three days of online form submission for electricity connection, the field inspection of the site will be done, which will lead to the process to estimate preparation, load sanction and intimation for fee deposit to be completed in next four days. After this, installation work including meter and flow of electricity will be done in eight days, thus completing the whole process in 15 days. While applying for connection, consumers in Delhi and Mumbai will be required to provide the self certification for type of consumer along with ID proof and premises ownership. It said that an amendment to CEA (Central Electricity Authority) notification have been made to waive off electrical approval for 11 KV installation carried out by discoms and allowing self certification by discoms engineers in such cases. It has been agreed by the discoms that reliability of power supply will be improved progressively each year till international benchmark is achieved. An amendment in CEA notification for allowing installation of transformers up to 500 KVA on double pole structure has also been made. Apart from these initiatives, a simplified online mechanism for Right of Way (RoW) approval process for electrical works is also under process, it added. Briean Boddy-Calhoun Womens Jersey
Kayamkulam NTPC running out of power
Rajiv Gandhi Combined Cycle Power Plant of the National Thermal Power Corporation in Kayamkulam is reeling under the neglect of the state government. The only thermal power plant in the state is hit by the apathy of the state government. The power generation was carried out only below 10 days in the Rs 1,200-crore invested power plant in 2016. However, the KSEB has been granting Rs 18 crore to NTPC every month as per the Power Purchase Agreement(PPA). The Central Government is also expressed dissatisfaction over the state government’s attitude towards the Navaratna company. Union Minister of Power, Piyush Goyal, has said that the State Government should submit a proposal to the Central Government for the conversion of fuel from Naphtha to Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). The minister said that the government is ready to allot fund for the development of the company, but efforts from the part of state administrators is a must. The 350-MW power plant was commissioned at Kayamkulam in 1998 to tackle the power shortage in the state. Naphtha was the fuel and its price hike increased the unit charge of electricity. After the rate increased, the KSEB stopped purchasing power from the NPTC. As per the PPA, the KSEB has been allotting running coast to the NTPC. The new PPA will end in 2023. After the establishment of the LNG terminal at Kochi, the plant was converted into LNG. The NTPC spent around Rs 33 crore for restructuring the company. But, the transportation of LNG from Kochi to Kayamkulam is a hurdle and the plant is lying idle. The lack of political interest was the main reason of the idling of the plant. The former government had decided to lay a pipe line through the sea to plant, but the opposition from the fishermen delayed it. Later, the state government invited expression of interest to transport LNG to Kayamkulam through barge, but it is yet to begin. However, the controversy related to handing over the land of NTPC to Harippad PPP model Medical College was also marred the development of the company. The NTPC management was not ready to hand over the land to the MC, but some of the ministers in the previous state ministry exerted pressure to hand over the land to MC. This also delayed the development of the project. Marcus Davenport Jersey
PDS kerosene price hike will reduce under recoveries by ₹7.60 billion in FY17: ICRA
Rating agency ICRA on Wednesday said the government decision to hike retail prices of subsidised kerosene by 25 paise every month will help cut down the gross under recoveries on the fuel by ?7.60 billion in 2016-17. The impact of the move on the exchequer would be even more in 2017-18, when it would help lower the gross under recoveries on kerosene by ?20.40 billion. “The upstream companies would be major beneficiaries of the reform especially at current or higher level of crude oil prices,” it said. As per existing under-recovery sharing formula, the government bears kerosene subsidy up to ?12 per litre, while the balance is borne by the PSU upstream companies – ONGC and Oil India Ltd. In the first such move in five years, retail prices of subsidised kerosene were hiked by 25 basis points on July 1. It followed a government decision to allow state-owned oil companies to raise the price of kerosene by 25 paise a litre each month for 10 months to cut the subsidy burden. Kerosene subsidy is estimated at about ?120 billion in the current fiscal, if global crude oil prices remain within the $40 to $50 per barrel. In 2015-16, kerosene accounted for 41.7 per cent of the total petroleum subsidy of ?275.71 billion. According to the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, the under recoveries on subsidised kerosene is estimated at ?13.12 per litre in July as against ?11.73 last month. Ryan Spooner Authentic Jersey
Essar all set to become India’s first shale fracking company, awaits government guidelines
Essar Oil can’t wait to become the first company in the country to produce shale gas, and its coal bed methane block at Ranigunj in Bengal is all set for the task. The company has done all the preparations and is waiting for the government guidelines. Ranigunj is spread over 500 square kilometre area, where Essar Oil began explorations in April 2009. “We have been preparing ourselves in anticipation that regulations would allow us so that there is minimum gestation period,” Essar exploration and production CEO Manish Maheswari said. The government notified the Hydrocarbons Exploration Licencing Policy in March 2016. Before that, shale gas was in the exclusive domain of public sector oil companies. But under the new regulation, a block operator can explore and extract both conventional as well as non-conventional resource from the same acreage. “While policy has been notified, Directorate General of Hydrocarbons is formulating the guidelines. We need to see whether we would be allowed to extract shale from our block but we believe the government recognises the complementarity of producing CBM as well as shale gas,” Maheswari said. To illustrate, CBM extraction gives out water while shale fracking needs water. Again, CBM production can only be ramped up gradually after de-watering while in case of shale, production is high in the initial years. “So, we can front-end shale production and back-end CBM production, thereby achieving an optimum utilisation of infrastructure. Also, while we need to drill separate wells, there would be better utilisation of land footprint,” he said. Essar’s Raniganj (East) Block in Bengal recently became India’s first CBM asset to cross 1 million standard cubic metres per day (scmd) production milestone. Besides Ranigunj, Essar has CBM blocks at Rajmahal in Bengal, Sohagpur in Madhya Pradesh, and Talcher & IB in Orissa. While the CBM gas in place is estimated at 4.14 trillion cubic feet, the shale gas-initial-in-place is almost double at 8 tcf. In Essar’s CB-ON/03 block at Mehsana, there is 0.7 tcf of CBM and 2.6 tcf of shale reserve. In Ranigunj, 300 wells have been drilled of which 192 are gas producing. It has laid 60 kilometres of gas evacuation pipeline with 30 kilometers dedicated to Matrix Fertilizer. Essar has targeted to produce CBM at the rate of 2 million scm per day by FY16-17 and 3 million scm per day by mid FY2017-18 from Raniganj. Cumulative investments of Rs 33 billion have been made in the block till date and another Rs 10 billion investment is expected. John Miller Womens Jersey
Mumbai High production: Senior babus in dock as CAG report says Rs 260 billion loss
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report that India lost oil & gas production worth over Rs 260 billion due to delay in awarding the Ratna and R-Series hydrocarbon blocks, 130 km off the Mumbai coast, has brought the Negotiating Team of Secretaries (NTS) under the scanner of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC). At a meeting on Tuesday, the PAC, headed by Congress leader K V Thomas, was of the view that the country should have a mechanism to review the efficiency of high-level government officials associated with inter-ministerial groups or high-level groups independently of the help of regular bureaucracy, sources said. As the issue was taken up, Thomas is understood to have said that he was unable to understand the NTS, which comprised senior civil servants, keeping such a “calculated silence and inaction, if not indifference”. The panel is seeking the Annual Confidential Report (ACR)/Annual Performance Assessment Report (APAR)s of all the officers in the NTS and those assisting them, the sources said, adding it was of the view that being graded outstanding while the result was “apathy, inefficiency and negligence” could not co-exist. The NTS included secretaries in ministries of petroleum and natural gas and finance and chairman and managing director of ONGC. The CCEA had in 1999 approved negotiations to be held by the NTS for finalising and concluding Production Sharing Contract (PSC) within six months. The NTS set a deadline of February 2000. The PAC pointed out that the process of reaching up to a decision to finalise the PSC was not completed even after 23 years of the policy decision– 19 years of award and 16 years of approval of Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs. The PAC said it was the “rarest of rare cases of extraordinary negligence and inefficiency”. Bids for private participation were invited as early as 1993 and the CCEA approved the award of contract to the Consortium of Successful Bidders (COSB) in 1996. Not a single barrel of oil was extracted since 1994 when the ONGC stopped production. The government had issued notice inviting development of R and RS fields in 1993 and a year later ONGC had stopped production of petroleum from these fields. The parliamentary panel noted that the government had cancelled the award in 2016, after a period of 20 years, which saw six governments at the Centre. In 2015, the CAG report had said the delay in taking a final decision on various matters was an indication of lack of seriousness in the approach of the ministry of petroleum and natural gas towards reaching at a final decision on this issue, particularly when an already developed and producing field was lying closed for more than 20 years, in contrast to the objectives of the policy to attract private investment for upstream oil sector. John Matuszak Authentic Jersey