Shell’s floating LNG facility sets sail from South Korea for Australia
Royal Dutch Shell’s Prelude floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) ship has left a shipyard in South Korea for its destination offshore northwest Australia, the company said on Thursday. Shell’s $12.6 billion Prelude project is expected to start operating next year, the company said, after long delays since the oil major first decided to go ahead with the project in 2011. Once the facility arrives in Australia, it will be secured to the seabed by mooring chains before it can be connected to the gas field and start operating, Shell said. The Prelude FLNG was built by a Technip Samsung Heavy Industries consortium in the South Korean shipyard of Geoje.Royal Dutch Shell’s Prelude floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) ship has left a shipyard in South Korea for its destination offshore northwest Australia, the company said on Thursday. Shell’s $12.6 billion Prelude project is expected to start operating next year, the company said, after long delays since the oil major first decided to go ahead with the project in 2011. Once the facility arrives in Australia, it will be secured to the seabed by mooring chains before it can be connected to the gas field and start operating, Shell said. The Prelude FLNG was built by a Technip Samsung Heavy Industries consortium in the South Korean shipyard of Geoje. Drake Caggiula Authentic Jersey
Natural Gas Can Strengthen Indo-US. Energy Linkages
Modi-Trump Summit has successfully open the avenues of natural gas cooperation between the U.S. and India. The scope of this cooperation is based on the premise of the U.S. shale gas boom and technology advancement in hydrocarbons, which can not only help India to increase its domestic gas production but also increase its share of LNG exports to India. This would go a long way in strengthening India-U.S. energy linkages. In the recently concluded Modi-Trump Summit, both the U.S. and India didn’t shy away to put forth core issues concerning their bilateral relationship such as issues of trade deficit and adverse investment climate in India raised by the U.S. and issues of Pakistan sponsored terrorism and H1-B visa voiced by India. While these issues, inter alia were well enunciated in the “Joint Statement of United States and India – Prosperity Through Partnership”, the need for energy linkages between the U.S. and India was also find its places. Such linkages form the basis for their economic prosperity and growth, and natural gas has the key role to play in this. However to establish such linkages, President Trump has sought for removal of barriers for U.S. exports to India, stating that, “It is important that barriers be removed to the export of US goods into your markets and that we reduce our trade deficit with your country. US looked forward to exporting more energy, including liquefied natural gas (LNG) on long-term contracts.” Thus, natural gas exports from the U.S. to India would help meet latter’s natural gas demands, while addressing concerns growing trade deficit of the U.S. with India. The trade deficit of the U.S. with India currently stands at US$24 billion. Given the complementary nature of natural gas dynamics between India and the U.S., its role fits well into their energy cooperation. U.S. natural gas exports as well as its technical support in augment India’s domestic natural gas would help latter to increase its share of natural gas thereby addressing India’s climate change concerns. In this regard, revisiting the cooperation framework under the U.S.-India Energy Dialogue launched in May 2005 by both the countries would be a good inception. In this way both the countries can reshape their future discourse of energy cooperation. Under this dialogue, there are six working groups formed and oil and gas is one of them. To strengthen their energy cooperation both India and the U.S. have signed couple of open-ended MoUs on unconventional energy resources, such has gas hydrates and shale gas. In December 2008, for instance, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) has signed a MoU on resource exploration hazards and environmental issues associated with Gas Hydrates, Field studies and research for Gas hydrate. Later in November 2010, U.S. Department of State (DoS) and Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas (MoPNG) signed a MoU on unconventional gas development cooperation for exchange of knowledge and expertise in shale gas resource characterization and assessment. These deliberations have helped India to move ahead with its shale gas objectives and national gas hydrate plans. On October 14, 2013, Government of India has announced “Policy Guidelines for Exploration and Exploitation of Shale Gas and oil by National Oil Companies under Nomination regime”, allowing two National Oil Companies namely, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited and Oil India Limited (OIL) to carry out shale gas exploration in 50 and 6 blocks respectively in the first phase. While already Indian companies such as Reliance Industries, Indian Oil Corporation and OIL have stakes in U.S. shale projects in U.S. oil and gas fracking technology, the U.S. government can sponsor some more visits for Indian officials and commercial concerns to major fracking regions to share fracking technologies to them with a clear and definitive outcome. In the past, there has been such exchanges of officials from both the sides to discuss regulatory and environmental issues related to shale gas development. However, ‘above the ground’ factors such as, unavailability of sufficient land and water, land right issues, etc., would continue to work as obstacles for shale gas development in India. Shale gas requires vast tract of land compared to conventional oil and gas drilling, which is a challenge in India due to limited availability of land. Moreover, unlike the U.S. the occupier of the land in India is not entitled to any monetary incentive and environment regulation in India are stringent enough to discourage fracking compared to that in the U.S. where under Trump administration its environmental laws have spurred shale oil and gas development. Both the countries are also cooperating under the National Gas Hydrate Plan. While the Expedition-02 of this plan is under way, the U.S.G.S. in association with MoPNG has recently discovered highly enriched accumulations of NGH in the Bay of Bengal, with a potentially producible large accumulation of gas hydrates in the Krishna Godavari Basin, off India’s east coast. This is said to be a game-changer for whole world after it is made economically recoverable and in a safe manner. While both the U.S. and India continues to work together to address aforementioned challenges the former has already opened its door for shale gas exports to nations with whom U.S. has not signed any Free Trade Agreement and India is one of its beneficiary. This has facilitated Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) to sign an agreement for importing LNG from the U.S. wherein from March 2018, it is looking forward to its first LNG imports after it signed a deal for 2.3 million ton LNG supplies over 20 years from Cove Point in 2013. Similarly, it has also signed a contract for 3.5 million ton of LNG with Cheniere Energy Inc’s Sabine Pass project in Louisiana, US, for which supplies will begin in December 2018. Trump administration has further called to greater LNG exports to India, primarily to both diversify its exports and address the concerns of growing trade deficit between India. To give further momentum to reinvigorated energy partnership, both the countries, therefore,
High oil bill: Government exhorts national companies to raise production
With Prime Minister Narendra Modi setting steep target of cutting reliance on imports, the Oil Ministry has intensified monitoring of oil and gas fields given to state-owned firms like ONGC to avoid slippages in domestic output. Modi, in March 2015, had called for cutting India’s dependence on imports to meet oil needs by 10 per cent by 2022, from 77 per cent then. However, India’s import dependence has since only risen to 81 per cent. “Most of our production of oil and gas come from nomination fields with ONGC and Oil India. We have now started monitoring those fields and have given new benchmarks to the national oil companies to increase production,” Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said at an industry event. He said that oil recovery from reservoirs internationally is 35-40 per cent and that for gas is 55-70 per cent. In India, the current recovery factors of ONGC and Oil India for crude oil are as low as 27 per cent and 23 per cent. In case of natural gas, it is 54 per cent and 43 per cent for ONGC and Oil India, respectively,” he said. Pradhan said there is a need for introducing new thoughts, new technologies and remaining ahead of the curve. “I am told E&P sector should have major investment in ‘Internet of Things’. Digital oil fields, all infrastructure linked to the network, ability to monetise micro reserves are the new areas we need to look at,” he said. He cited the example of a marginal oil field in Vienna where sensors and small in-house innovations were used to reduce cost of production. “In contrast, in India, we have practices like having idle rigs and other assets; unscientific inventory and HR management; flaring of gas and remaining which are keeping us behind the technology curve,” he said. The minister called on investors to come and invest in oil and gas exploration and production under liberal fiscal policies like pricing and marketing freedom and minimal government interference in management of contracts. “The government has consciously tried to reduce administrative and regulatory roadblocks and to infuse new technologies. “Going forward, the government remains committed to making sustained and significant efforts to liberalise the sector by simplifying processes, increasing market access and bringing developments in the technology domain with the aim to enhance the efficiency of our oil and gas industry,” he said. Vic Beasley Womens Jersey
From Rs 4,000 cr to Rs 30,000 cr, Dharmendra Pradhan plans big business boost for Indraprastha Gas Limited
Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan has said that the government plans to increase Indraprastha Gas Limited’s (IGL) business from the current Rs 4000 crore to Rs 30,000 crore. The minister added that IGL caters to over 4 lakh commercial vehicles in Delhi, of these vehicles 80,000 are auto-rickshaws, 2.5 lakh taxis and 1 lakh commercial buses, this number does not include private vehicles which use Compressed Natural Gas (CNG). Recently the price of CNG was hiked by 35 paise per kg and the price of Piped Natural Gas (PNG) was hiked by 81 paise last month in the National Capital Region (NCR). IGL, which distributes both the gasses in the national capital has said that the prices were hiked due to rising operational costs. The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council had decided to include natural gas, which would include both PNG and CNG, in the GST regime in order to provide some relief to the oil and gas sector. Goods and services used by the gas industry will be subject to GST, but the sale and supply of petroleum and gas will continue to attract earlier taxes like VAT and excise duty, PTI reported. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said, ”There is an agreement that natural gas can be included in the GST. As natural gas is an industrial product there won’t be any problem in its inclusion”. The GST Council is expected to meet on June 30, hours before the tax is rolled out. If natural gas is included in the GST then the tax paid on inputs and services used to produce the gas can be set off against taxes on its sale. This would reduce the losses of the industry by nearly 20 percent. Vernon Davis Jersey
India to launch new bidding mechanism for mega oil and gas auctions to be held next month
In a major attempt to boost India’s oil and gas production, the government will today simultaneously launch two key interventions – a revamped oil and gas bidding mechanism named Open Acreage Licensing Process (OALP) and the National Data Repository (NDR) for the first major oil field auctions to be held from July 1 under a new Hydrocarbon Exploration Licensing Policy (HELP). Both the initiatives will be launched by Finance Minister Arun Jaitely and petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan in a mega event here. The HELP regime is expected to cut down delays in development of blocks and legal disputes with companies because of its revenue share methodology, the ministry believes. The upcoming auctions under HELP will follow the just-concluded bidding for Discovered Small Fields (DSF) under which 31 oil blocks were awarded to around two dozen mostly small-sized firms. “Launch of National Data Repository (NDR) and Open Acreage Licensing (OAL) Process. Union Minister for Finance, Defence and Corporate Affairs Arun Jaitely and Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan will preside over the event,” the oil ministry said in a release. Under HELP, an upstream player will be allowed to explore both conventional and unconventional oil and gas resources including Coal Bed Methane, Shale gas and oil and gas hydrates under a single license. The new policy also stipulates a differential structure of royalty rates based on the depth of the field. The new policy and the upcoming auctions are part of the ministry’s effort to achieve the target of cutting down India’s import dependence for energy by 10 per cent by 2022 set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The new bidding mechanism to be launched today will allow interested firms to bid for blocks of their choice at any time of the year with the help of NDR — a comprehensive database of the country’s key sedimentary basins that will provide the bidders data on contract areas that will be available for auctioning. Under the new bidding mechanism an investor will be allowed to put forth an Expression of Interest for undertaking contracts under Petroleum Operations Contract (POC) or Reconnaissance Contract (RC). The investor will have the liberty to apply for such contracts bi-annually (1 July- 31 December and 1 Jan-30 June) and may also participate in rounds of auctions conducted by the regulator DGH over and above the applications made under OALP. Under RC, parties may carry out exploration operations for a given block for all types of hydrocarbons, except for coal bed methane for a contract period of two years with a provision for an extension up to one year. The reconnaissance licensee will have the right to license the data acquired for a period of 12 years. An investor applying for RC will only need to have positive net worth as qualification criteria in order to be eligible to bid for RC rounds, which essentially paves the way for new entrants to participate in these contracts. In the evaluation phase, the bidder scoring the highest (90) marks will be declared winner. The originator participating in the bidding process will get an originator incentive of 10 marks during the bid evaluation. The contractor who has won the RC bids and subsequently completed the RC term and wishes to migrate to petroleum operations contract will get the right of first refusal in the POC auctions if it meets all the qualification criteria. Accordingly, operator of RC will be, in the event of failing to win the POC bid, allowed to match the financial and technical bid of the highest bidder. Under POC, investors will be allowed to undertake exploration, development or production operations or any combination of such operations including construction, operation and maintenance of all necessary facilities and all other activities deemed to be necessary by the operator. The operator under POC will be allowed an initial exploration period of six years under a total contract period of 26 years. Unlike the DSF bidding round, where investors with no prior performance experience could also participate in production operation contracts, the investors participating in the HELP auctions to be held for POC under OALP bidding rounds will have to have a minimum operatorship experience of one year and acreage holding or production record as a pre-requisite under technical qualifications. During the evaluation phase, the bidder scoring the highest marks (95) will be declared the winner. The originator participating under the POC bidding will get an originator incentive of five marks during the bid evaluation. Cam Atkinson Jersey
Niti Aayog wants greater role for oil & natural gas board in upstream biz
The draft energy policy of the government has proposed enlarging the regulatory ambit of Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB). The policy draft proposes extending the remit of PNGRB over “selected statutory aspects of the upstream business, including HSE, data collection, joint development of reservoirs in adjacent blocks, sharing of infrastructure and promotion of acreages”. Currently, PNGRB regulates certain aspects of the downstream business only, while the upstream sector is monitored by the directorate general of hydrocarbons (DGH). Both these organisations are not fully empowered to regulate the sectors. The draft, however, says, “The contract administration role of production sharing contracts will remain with the DGH. But for that, the former will have to be equipped with adequate and competent resources.” India also aims to improve in several aspects, namely, competition between fuel sources on calorific parity basis (provided non-fuel economics is also neutral), ease of entry and exit for players, free consumer choice of vendor and market determined prices, among others says the draft. “However, many of these features evolve over time when conditions ripen.” The draft policy also lists several new regulatory interventions like separation of content and carriage in electricity, city gas, liquid fuels at select locations and the sharing of energy infrastructure by including storages and marketing infrastructure, ATF hydrants, offshore infrastructure, LNG terminals and aviation fuel infrastructure, among others within the definition of ‘common carriers’. Besides these, the policy also made a case for granting choice of service provider for LPG, kerosene and electricity, among others. Moreover, data sharing especially in the area of oil and gas exploration was deemed important. “The existing regulations need to be expanded to address the needs of our energy market to usher in strong market framework. The existing regulators will provide for or clarify through regulations unbundling between gas transporters and marketers, overlap between jurisdictions relating to competition issues, adequate returns to gas pipeline developers in the initial years when the throughput is minuscule, induction of latest technology, robust data collection and dissemination, and health, safety and environment (HSE).” Niti Aayog is preparing the national energy policy, the draft of which has been unveiled for public comments. According to Niti Aayog, the four key objectives of energy policy are access at affordable prices, improved security and independence, greater sustainability and economic growth. According to the draft, unlike other mature energy markets across the globe, the Indian energy regulators must undertake developmental role to help bring in more players, enhance availability, contribute to reducing entry costs and help different segments of the business integrate well. Several of these areas are already included in the regulatory statutes with poor implementation. “PNGRB is one example that has not been able to succeed in the rapid roll-out of CGD networks. The Indian energy sector has higher expectations from regulators as compared to the developed energy markets of the world where regulation is gradually giving way to open markets,” says the draft. Yasiel Puig Jersey
LPG sales jump by record 9.8 pc on Ujjwala push
LPG sales have jumped by 9.8 per cent in the fiscal year ended March 31 after the government gave a record number of cooking gas connections, most of them to poor households. Public sector fuel retailers sold 18.9 million tons of packed domestic LPG — the fuel that is sold to consumers in cylinders — during 2016-17. “Packed LPG growth in 2015-16 was 7.1 per cent and in 2016-17 it was 9.8 per cent,” a senior oil ministry official said. The growth rate assumes significance considering that petroleum product sales have stagnated at 4-6 per cent. India consumed 5.2 per cent more petroleum products like petrol, diesel, LPG and jet fuel, in 2016-17 at 194.2 million tons. “LPG is the highest grosser. As many as 111.3 crore cylinders were sold in 2016-17,” the official said. State-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp (HPCL) together have 23.71 crore LPG customers registered with them out of which 23.46 crore customers are domestic users. Of these only 19.88 crore are active users. The official said about 3.32 crore new domestic LPG connections were issued during 2016-17, including two crore under Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY). Under the PMUY, the government is giving free LPG connections to poor households with a view to weave them away from polluting fuel like firewood. The PMUY has helped increase LPG coverage to 72.8 per cent of the population, up from around 50 per cent three years ago. The official said there may be few states where the LPG refil purchase has been below the national average of 4-5 cylinders a year but overall there has been a tremendous growth in LPG consumption. “Bihar recorded the highest growth at 22.7 per cent, followed by Chattisgarh at 17.6 per cent, Jharkhand at 16.7 per cent, West Bengal at 15.9 per cent and Uttar Pradesh with 15 per cent growth rate,” he said. States which do not have abandunt alternate cooking fuel like forest wood, have shown greater ease in switching over to LPG usage. Deshazor Everett Jersey
ONGC Gets Shale Go-Ahead
State-owned explorer ONGC Ltd has got an environmental clearance to drill five wells for shale gas and oil in the Krishna-Godavari (KG) basin at an estimated cost of Rs 217 crore. ONGC had proposed further exploration of shale gas and oil in the KG basin and was examined by the environment ministry. “The proposal was first vetted by the expert appraisal committee. Based on its recommendation, the environment ministry has given the final environment clearance to ONGC for exploratory drilling of five wells in the KG basin,” a senior government official said. The approval has been given subject to certain conditions. According to the proposal, ONGC plans to drill wells in the onland blocks in West Godavari, Bantumilli extension, Suryaraopeta, Mahadevapatnam and Mandapeta in Krishna, West Godavari and East Godavari districts to assess the potential of shale. San Francisco 49ers Jersey
Indian Minister Discusses Gas Supplies With Russian Deputy Energy Minister
India’s Petroleum and Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said Tuesday that he had discussed supplies of natural gas to the Asian country during a meeting with Russian Deputy Energy Minister Yuri Sentyurin and the delegation from Russia’s energy giant Gazprom. “Received the Russian Deputy Minister of Energy & @GazpromEN officials. Had a discussion on proposed gas pipeline to India,” Pradhan said on his Twitter account. In 2013, Moscow and New Delhi agreed to create a joint expert group to consider gas deliveries to India through above-ground pipelines. In 2016, Gazprom and Engineers India Limited company signed a memorandum of understanding reflecting the interest of the parties in jointly exploring routes for pipeline gas supplies from Russia, and other countries, to India. On June 15, 2017, Gazprom Deputy Chairman of the Management Committee Alexander Medvedev said that the company was considering the supplies of natural gas to India, adding that swap operations with China and Iran could take place under this process. Justin Blackmon Womens Jersey
US President Donald Trump looks to increase energy exports to India
US plans to export more natural gas, clean coal and renewable resources and technologies to India to fuel the country’s growing energy demand and strengthen ties between the two countries, according to an Indo-US joint statement. “President Trump affirmed that the United States continues to remove barriers to energy development and investment in the United States and to US energy exports so that more natural gas, clean coal, and renewable resources and technologies are available to fuel India’s economic growth and inclusive development,” President Donald Trump said in after meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The shale revolution has placed US in a strong position to export gas to countries like India that are low on fossil fuel resources but have a rapidly rising demand for oil. The two leaders have affirmed the continued importance of their strategic energy partnership and supported financing of energy projects, including clean coal projects, by Multilateral Development Banks to promote universal access to affordable and reliable energy. They looked forward to conclusion of contractual agreements between Westinghouse Electric Company and the Nuclear Power Corporation of India for six nuclear reactors in India and also related project financing, according to the statement. “The leaders called for a rational approach that balances environment and climate policy, global economic development, and energy security needs,” as per the joint statement. US plans to export more liquefied natural gas (LNG) to India and is negotiating for a higher price, Trump said in a separate press remark. “We’re also looking forward to exporting more American energy to India as your economy grows, including major long-term contracts to purchase American natural gas, which are right now being negotiated, and we will sign them. Trying to get the price up a little bit,” Trump said. India already has long-term gas import deal with US. State-run GAIL has a contract to buy 3.5 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of LNG for 20 years from Cheniere Energy and has also booked capacity for another 2.3 mtpa at Dominion Energy’s Cove Point liquefaction plant. GAIL expects to receive supplies from early next year. Steven Kampfer Jersey