Norway to launch 2017 mature-areas oil licensing on tuesday – 87 offsore blocks up for grabs
Norway will launch its 2017 licensing round for so-called mature areas on Tuesday, allowing oil and gas firms access to up to 87 new offshore exploration blocks, Minister of Petroleum and Energy Tord Lien told news agency NTB. Final awards of acreage, which depend among other things on the level of interest from oil companies, is expected to take place in January 2018, NTB said. Also known as licensing of pre-defined areas, the mature round aims to award new acreage close to existing developments, allowing companies to tap in to any discoveries through infrastructure that is already in place. A total of 33 firms applied for acreage in the corresponding 2016 round, including Statoil, Shell, ConocoPhillips, Aker BP and Lundin Petroleum . Edwin Encarnacion Womens Jersey
IOC keen to buy 26 pc stake in GSPC’s Mundra LNG terminal
State-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC) is in talks to buy 26 per cent stake in debt-laden Gujarat State Petroleum Corp’s (GPSC) almost-completed Rs 4,500 crore Mundra LNG import terminal in Gujarat. The 5 million tonnes a year import terminal, the third facility in Gujarat for import of natural gas in its liquid form in ships, is nearing completion and GSPC is keen to exit the project completely. “They offered us all of their 50 per cent stake but we are keen to take 26 per cent for now,” an IOC official said. With a view to expand its gas business, IOC is keen to buy a stake in Mundra terminal but does not want GSPC to exit the project completely. IOC, the country’s largest oil company, wants the state government entity to remain as a part of the project for smooth operations, he said. Gujarat already has a 15 million tonnes liquefied natural gas (LNG) import facility operated by Petronet LNG Ltd at Dahej and another 5 million tonnes terminal of Shell at Hazira. The official said IOC is keen to take half of GSPC stake and wants the Gujarat government entity to keep the remaining 25 per cent. “The stake will however depend on IOC board finding the asking price viable. So far GSPC has not put a value to its stake,” he said. GSPC LNG – a unit of GSPC – holds 50 per cent interest in the project. Adani Group holds 25 per cent while the remaining 25 per cent is to be bid to a strategic partner, the shortlist of which also included IOC. It will be selling the LNG terminal together with storage and re-gasification facilities over an area of 28 hectares on the coast. India Gas Solutions Pvt Ltd — the equal joint venture between the Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries and Europe’s second largest oil firm BP — and state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) are the other two firms shortlisted to pick up 25 per cent stake earmarked for the strategic partner in the project. Initially, eight firms including state gas utility GAIL India had expressed interest to buy the stake but only three were finalised. Essentially, GSPC was looking at a partner which can bring in LNG or consume the imported liquid gas, sources said. While BP is a producer and trader of LNG, RIL’s twin refineries at Jamnagar in Gujarat as well as its large petrochemical plants are huge consumers of gas. ONGC also is a big consumer of the fuel. IOC too has large requirement of gas at its oil refineries. The company also markets gas to users. Besides the three, other firms which had expressed interest included Petronet LNG, Torrent Energy, Japan’s Mitsui & Co and Toyota Tsusho, sources said. Mundra terminal, which is to be financed in a debt to equity ratio of 70:30, is expandable up to 10 million tonnes per annum in near future. Michael Dickson Authentic Jersey
From today, avail 0.75 per cent discount for cashless refuelling
Consumers will get the promised discount on cashless fuel purchases at petrol pumps run by state oil companies from Tuesday.“The discount will be credited to customer’s account by way of `cash back’ within maximum three working days,“ Indian Oil Corp, the nation’s largest fuel retailer, said in a statement on Monday. Last Thursday , the government had directed state-run oil companies to offer a 0.75% discount on the price of petrol and diesel to consumers paying by cards or mobile wallets to push people towards digital payments in the face of a severe cash crunch brought on by the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.` So, a person purchasing fuel for Rs 1,000 using credit and debit cards or wallets will get . 7.5 back in his account in ` three days. Oil companies decided on the `cash back’ route after four days of talks with banks and wallet companies. They had also considered an upfront discount to those paying digitally, but this seemed difficult to implement. Cash back is an often used method by card and mobile wallet companies to persuade consumers to use their services. The discount on fuel purchase is one among the many incentives the government has introduced recently to make people adopt digital means of payment even as banks struggle to meet customers’ cash demand. Nearly 4.5 crore customers buy petrol or diesel every day and collectively contribute about Rs 1,800 crore in transactions. Usually, just 20% of these transactions are digital, but in November, these have risen to 40% of the total due to the cash crunch. Brayden Point Authentic Jersey
Government to seek legal view on joining Reliance Industries arbitration
Government is considering joining the arbitration initiated by Reliance Industries and its partners against a $1.55 billion demand raised on them for “unfairly enriching” by producing natural gas belonging to ONGC. RIL and its partners BP Plc of the UK and Canada’s Niko Resources had on November 11 brought an arbitration notice against the government, disputing the $1.55 billion demand. “We have received the notice and are studying it. We will take an opinion of the law ministry on joining the arbitration,” a senior oil ministry official said. Under the dispute resolution mechanism set out in the production sharing contract (PSC), an arbitration notice over a dispute has to be followed up within six months by naming arbitrators. So, RIL and its partners have time till May 10 to name an arbitrator for the dispute. The government will thereafter name its arbitrator and the two will then decide on a presiding judge of the three-member arbitration panel. Often, the two do not agree on the presiding arbitrator and the matter over such appointment lands either at the International Court of Justice or the Supreme Court. “It is a long-drawn affair. If you are looking for a quick-fix solution, it won’t come so easy,” the official said. The oil ministry had on November 3 issued a notice to RIL, Niko and UK’s BP Plc seeking $1.47 billion for producing in the seven years ended March 31, 2016 about 338.332 million British thermal unit of gas that had seeped or migrated from the state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation’s (ONGC) blocks into their adjoining KG-D6 in the Bay of Bengal. After deducting $71.71 million royalty paid on the gas produced and adding an interest at the rate of Libor plus 2 per cent, totalling USD 149.86 million, a total demand of $1.55 billion was made on RIL, BP and Niko. RIL is the operator of the KG-D6 block with 60 per cent interest while BP holds 30 per cent. The remaining 10 per cent is with Niko Resources. The Justice (retd) A P Shah Committee, in its August 28 report, concluded that there has been “unjust enrichment” to the contractor of the block KG-DWN-98/3 (KG-D6) due to production of the migrated gas from ONGC’s blocks KG-DWN-98/2 and Godavari PML. The government, the official said, has accepted the recommendations of the committee and consequently, it decided to claim restitution from RIL-BP-Niko for “the unjust benefit received and unfairly retained”. So, a notice was sent, he said, adding that the government is also pressing RIL to pay USD 174.9 million of additional profit petroleum after certain costs were disallowed because of KG-D6 output being lower than targets. The cost recovery issue is also being arbitrated separately. Originally, ONGC had sued RIL for producing gas that had migrated from its blocks KG-DWN-98/2 (KG-D5) and Godavari PML in the KG basin to adjoining KG-D6 block of RIL. Under direction of the Delhi High Court, the government had appointed a one-man committee under retired Justice A P Shah to go into the issue. Justin Tucker Womens Jersey
GAIL gets 2nd extension for Kochi-Mangalore pipeline
State-run gas utility GAIL India Ltd has won a second extension for completing the Kochi- Bangalore-Mangalore natural gas pipeline as it faces unprecedented problems in getting land in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Oil regulator Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) last week gave GAIL four more years till February 2019 to complete the 1104-km Kochi-Koottanad-Bangalore-Mangalore natural gas pipeline. The Rs 44.93 billion was originally to be completed in March 2013 but the deadline was first relaxed to June 2015. “Considering the recommendation of Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and the state of unprecedented socio-political hindrance in execution of the project. PNGRB has decided to revise the completion schedule from June 2015 to February 2019,” PNGRB said in the December 8 notice. GAIL is to lay the pipeline in two phases – a 44-km Phase-1 connecting Kochi port to FACT plant in the city and a 1,060-km Phase-II taking the line from there to Thrissur- Kotanand and Pallakad in Kerala and onward to Coimbatore and Salem in Tamil Nadu before reaching Bangalore. From Kootannd a branch line is to go to Kozhikode and onward to Mangalore. Phase-I of the pipeline has been commissioned, which takes the gas imported at Kochi LNG terminal to the fertilizer plant in the city. However, the Phase-II has been languishing depsite the Supreme Court supporting it. Construction has not progressed due to protests by farmers over laying of the pipeline through farm land. This has led to Petronet LNG Ltd’s 5 million tons a year liquefied natural gas (LNG) import facility at Kochi running at less than five per cent of the capacity as there is no pipeline to take the fuel to consumers. Kyle Fuller Jersey
Qatar to merge LNG producers Qatargas and RasGas creating global operator
Qatar, the world’s largest liquified natural gas producer, announced on Sunday it is to merge state-owned Qatargas and RasGas to create a “truly unique global energy operator”. Saad Sherida al-Kaabi, president and chief executive of state-owned Qatar Petroleum, said the move to the merger would begin right away and the companies would begin operating under a single entity, named Qatargas, within 12 months. He said the move would save “hundreds of millions of dollars”. “The integration aims to create a truly unique global energy operator in terms of size, service and reliability,” he told reporters at a news conference. Kaabi added that there would be no job losses on the “operating side”, but it was unclear if there would be cuts elsewhere. Qatargas, in its present form, is the largest LNG producer in the world, according to its website. RasGas, holds no assets but oversees and manages all LNG operations in the energy-rich emirate. Both companies have joint ventures with oil companies including ExxonMobil, Total and Shell. Kemal Ishmael Jersey
Dharmendra Pradhan Launches Customer Awareness Campaigns To Educate Customers About Cashless Transactions At Pumps
Minister of State (I/C) for Petroleum & Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan too launched Customer Awareness Campaigns for digital transactions at petrol pumps, the recent ones being at the auto Care Centre, a flagship HPCL Retail Outlet at Niti Marg, New Delhi and also at BPCL Outlet at Moti Bagh, New Delhi. Digital awareness campaigns to educate people about cashless transactions is clearly the flavor of the moment across the nation. Digital awareness campaigns to educate people about cashless transactions is clearly the flavor of the moment across the nation. The Customer Awareness Campaign focuses at spreading digital awareness and facilitating the common man to use Cashless payment options during day to day transactions. With the introduction of Cashless payment options like Credit & Debit Cards, POS terminals, e-Wallet options and Loyalty Cards at Retail Outlets, the campaign reinforces the fact that convenience lies in being cashless in today’s time. The various digital payment solutions available to the general public, were also showcased. Speaking on the occasion, Sh. Dharmendra Pradhan said that the campaign will fulfill the objective of moving towards digital transactions. Transition will be towards less cash and then towards cashless. For this purpose, all service providers have been brought on board, and a MoU has been entered with Common Service Centers (CSCs) of Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, who will be deploying trainers at Oil Marketing Companies’ Retail Outlets across the country to train the general public on use of various Digital/Cashless payment modes and to promote them. Tie-ups have been done with Public sector banks, Paytm, Mobikwik, Oxygen, Citrus, Olamoney, Ideamoney, Jiomoney, Airtel money, Vodafone MPS, Freecharge etc. In one month all retail outlets in Delhi will be covered under the customer awareness cum training programmes, and subsequently it will spread to all the ROs across the country. Sh. Dharmendra Pradhan said that in the first phase, all Retail outlets numbering more than 53 thousand in the country will be covered in the campaign which will be further expanded to cover Gas distributors, LPG stations, bottling plants and other establishments. He said that Petrol pumps will not provide fuel through cashless transactions but also dispense cash. So far, 3413 retail outlets have been dispensing cash and they have dispensed Rs 63.55 Crore so far through PoS machines against swiping of debit cards. He said that almost 99% ROs in Delhi have PoS machines. Task force have been set up to look into the expansion of cashless services, overcome the hurdles in the path, facilitating such services through feature phones also, and exploring ways to undertake such transactions in offline mode. Today’s Customer Awareness Campaign for Digital transactions is yet another Consumer-empowering initiative launched by MOP&NG and a step forward promoting the vision of #CashlessEconomy of our Hon’ble Prime Minister, Sh. Narendra Modi. Teemu Pulkkinen Authentic Jersey
ONGC awaits DGH nod for $5 billion KG-D5 gas development plan
Oil and Natural Gas Corp is awaiting nod of upstream regulator DGH to commence investing $5.07 billion in bringing to production oil and gas discoveries in its Bay of Bengal block KG-D5. About a year back ONGC submitted to the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons(DGH) a field development plan (FDP) for bringing to production 10 oil and gas discoveries in KG basin block KG-DWN-98/2 (KG-D5), which sits next to Reliance Industries flagging KG-D6 fields. DGH so far has not approved the FDP, an official said. A meeting of the block oversight panel, Management Committee (MC) headed by DGH, has been called next week to review the FDP, he said. “Without waiting for the approval, tendering for long-lead items has started to ensure the 2019- 20 schedule for starting production is not missed,” he said. The board of ONGC had on March 28 approved an investment of $5,076.37 million for developing Cluster-II discoveries to flow natural gas from from June 2019 and oil by March 2020. “While the FDP was submitted a year, the board gave investment approval in March after the government allowed higher rates for deepwater discoveries, thus making KG-D5 viable,” he said, adding since then DGH nod is awaited. In 2014, ONGC had announced plans to start gas production from 2018 and oil by 2019 but a final investment decision was made contingent upon government approving a remunerative price for the deepsea block as the current rate of $2.5 per million British thermal unit was unviable. The government in March announced a new pricing formula for difficult areas that would at current prices give developers just about $6 per mmBtu price. KG-D5 gas fields are viable at that price, he said. The 7,294.6 sq km deepsea KG-D5 block has been broadly categorised into Northern Discovery Area (NDA – 3,800.6 sq km) and Southern Discovery Area (SDA – 3,494 sq km). The NDA has 11 oil and gas discoveries while SDA has the nation’s only ultra-deepsea gas find of UD-1. These finds have been clubbed in three groups – Cluster-1, Cluster-II and Cluster-III. Gas discovery in Cluster-I is to be tied up with finds in neighbouring G-4 block for production but this is not being taken up currently because of a dispute with RIL over migration of gas from ONGC blocks, the official said. From Cluster-II a peak oil output of 77,305 barrels per day is envisaged within two years of start of production. Gas output is slated to peak to 16.56 million standard cubic meters per day by end-2021. Cluster-2A mainly comprises of oil finds of A2, P1, M3, M1 and G-2-2 in NDA which can produce 77,305 bpd (3.86 million tonnes per annum) and 3.81 mmscmd of gas. Cluster 2B, which is made up of four gas finds — R1, U3, U1, and A1 in NDA — envisages a peak output of 12.75 mmscmd of gas, the official said, adding that peak output is likely to last 7 years. Cluster-3 is the UD-1 gas discovery in SDA in ultra deepsea that poses technological challenges. Cody Kessler Womens Jersey
Oil exploration spending may drop further next year -WoodMac
Global spending on oil and gas exploration in 2017 could fall below this year’s $40 billion, but lower costs mean profitability will increase, consultancy Wood Mackenzie said in a report on Friday. Faced with a 30-month-long oil price downturn, oil companies including Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell have slashed spending budgets in recent years, with exploration bearing the brunt. According to Wood Mackenzie, the share of exploration in overall oil and gas production investment will dip to a new low of 8 percent in 2017. “Overall investment will at best match 2016 year’s spend of around $40 billion, and may yet fall further,” said Andrew Latham, vice president of exploration at Wood Mackenzie. That compared with a 2014 peak of $95 billion. Lower costs of drilling rigs, simpler wells designs and cheaper seismic imaging mean well counts may nevertheless hold up close to 2016 numbers while returns improve. “After a decade in the doldrums, the majors’ returns from conventional exploration improved to nearly 10 percent in 2015. The rest of the industry is heading in the same direction. Fewer, better wells promise a brighter future for explorers,” Latham said. The rate of discoveries is not expected to fall next year and to average around 25 million barrels of oil equivalent per well. The world’s top oil companies have struggled to replace natural decline in production through exploration in recent years and will have to rely more on acquiring fields and smaller companies in the future, Latham said. Clark Gillies Womens Jersey
Saudis are trying to figure out how to survive in a post-oil era
Ali Alireza’s family has been trading in Saudi Arabia before it even existed as the kingdom it is today. The 55-year-old managing director of Haji Husein Alireza & Co. Ltd., which sells vehicles from dump trucks to Aston Martin cars, has shared in a boom that turned the desert monarchy into one of the world’s richest countries. He’s been through three oil-price collapses, but the latest has brought the kind of trauma that neither he nor his forebears have ever experienced. This time, the government isn’t waiting for a recovery. Instead, it’s pushing a roadmap that’s shaken the ultra-conservative nation. “It represents a generational shift, not only in the structure of Saudi Arabia but also in the thinking and culture of the Saudi individual,” Alireza said in his 14th-floor office with panoramic views of Jeddah, the Saudi trade hub on the Red Sea. “It’s something that we have to start teaching at kindergarten level. But it’s almost too good to be true, and that’s the scary part.” Called Vision 2030 and unveiled in April, the grand design is to get rid of a business culture tranquilized by oil wealth and stifled by bureaucracy and replace it with a competitive economy driven by private enterprise. The shock therapy to embrace a Saudi version of western-style capitalism risks coming too late, but on paper it’s tantamount to a revolution. Unprecedented There are parallels with eastern Europe’s transition out of communism and Britain’s privatization boom in the 1980s, but in reality the change is unique simply because there’s no other society on earth like Saudi Arabia. It requires a degree of “fundamental adjustment that I can’t find a precedent for,” said Simon Williams, HSBC Holdings Plc’s chief economist for central and eastern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. He has been going to Saudi Arabia since 1994. “You’re talking about changing the basis of the whole economy, not just of the public sector but of the private sector as well and that’s technically very difficult.” The pressure to change is hitting home, just ask Mohammed Dardeer. The 62-year-old executive at the MSD Management Consultancy said it took a month for Vision 2030 to sink in. Then his phone started ringing. The calls were from companies desperate for advice. System Shock For most, sales already were falling and customers disappearing. The government had said little about the payment delays to contractors. Now, Dardeer said, managers wanted to restructure salaries, create performance assessment programs and set up human resources departments. Companies that had grown too fat in the days of high oil prices wanted to downsize. “People were shocked and now they have to find a way to survive,” Dardeer said at his cramped, unassuming office next to computer stores and a wedding hall in the port city. “None of them had a contingency plan. They didn’t care before.” Now they have little choice, he said: “If you can’t keep up, you will be out.” Survival of Fittest The modernization is Saudi Arabia’s boldest since the creation of the kingdom in 1932. When Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the king’s powerful 31-year-old son, announced his plan to address the plunge in oil revenue, he acknowledged it was “ambitious,” though said it was achievable and “there are no excuses for us to stand still or move backwards.” Based on a week of interviews with businesspeople and consultants in Jeddah, one message was clear: things will be done differently from now on. Companies can no longer depend on government tenders for the bulk of their business. Out are reliance on foreign workers, cushy jobs and state largess; in are metrics and making the numbers add up. As Dardeer put it, those who remain stuck in the past won’t survive. Critics of the blueprint to transform the world’s largest oil exporter say it still lacks specifics on how to achieve the targets. For example, it includes bringing more women into the workforce, without addressing the constraints on them such as being banned from driving. And while the government is reducing spending to deflate a ballooning budget deficit, non-oil industries, the main engine of job creation, slipped briefly into recession. Kaswara Alkhatib, 48, chairman and chief executive officer of UTURN, an Arabic entertainment network on YouTube, supports Vision 2030, but the government now needs to communicate the details of how it will work. “Nobody’s talking now for the past six months about where we’re going,” he said at his office in Jeddah. “You can’t just tease me with a vision and be quiet about it. Keep on feeding us, where do we stand today, take questions, but don’t just tease us and disappear.” Business Buzzwords The Saudi goal is to increase the contribution of small and medium-sized businesses to 35 percent of the economy from 20 percent and help bring the jobless rate down to 7 percent from almost 12 percent. It will require weaning companies off more efficient foreign labor and training up locals who ordinarily would seek jobs with the state. The government already raised the cost of visas and residency permits for non-Saudis, who make up about a third of the 32 million population, making it more expensive to hire them. Some business owners are holding workshops for staff, others are seeking advice from outside consultants. Many are focusing on revamping or starting HR departments. KPIs — key performance indicators — have become the new buzzword. UTURN, the Internet company, hired consultants about a year ago to help create performance appraisals for its staff of 70 so that if they need to get rid of anyone they have KPIs to go by. “We want people who are actually able to create, not sitting and waiting for us to tell them what to do,” said Alkhatib, the CEO. Shut Off The more immediate issue is the effect of plummeting oil prices on the Saudi economy. Growth is set to slow to 1.4 percent this year, the worst pace since 2009, according to a Bloomberg