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Dual-fuel based power generation facility in Tata’s Pune plant

renjiniv — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 08:05:15 +0000

Tata Motors and the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), Japan, has inaugurated an environment-friendly dual-fuel based power generation facility in the Tata Motors’ Pune plant.

The aim of the project is to produce power through clean environment technology. To drive this project, a memorandum of understanding was jointly signed between the Government of India, the Government of Japan, NEDO and Tata Motors.

Teams from Tata Motors and NEDO jointly worked on the project for two years. Two 2.5MW diesel electric power generators sets were identified for conversion into dual-fuel generators, using natural gas as the main fuel and diesel as the pilot fuel. The project has become successful for operating diesel generator sets on natural gas and light diesel oil.

The Tata Group has embarked on a journey to reduce its cumulative carbon footprint. Changing over from existing liquefied fuel to clean burning gaseous fuels will help in reducing 3,770 tonnes of carbon dioxide in a year, and is a step towards helping the Tata group reduce its carbon footprint.

BP-Reliance deal may usher in fresh oil, gas investments

renjiniv — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 07:21:45 +0000

BP’s US $7.2-billion deal to jump into India’s oil and gas sector with Reliance Industries is the first sign of new investment that could attract more players, helping to boost output and meet surging demand.

The world’s fourth-largest economy is expanding at more than 8 per cent a year. But it struggles to pump even a third of the oil it guzzles, while gas use — limited by poor infrastructure — is already 30 per cent more than production. India has sought to attract the big international players since 1999 with its New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) but still only two foreign companies — BG and Cairn Energy — are producing any serious amounts in the country.

“This deal brings in one of the majors in a material way. Twenty-three blocks and an important gas play,” said Richard Quin, lead analyst for West Asia, North Africa and India at energy research consultancy Wood Mackenzie. “I suspect the Indian government is very happy about it.”

BP, which has only one block, picked up through Indian government auctions, is now paying privately-owned Reliance for a 30 per cent stake in 23 of its blocks, including the big gas producer D6 in the Krishna Godavari basin. The blocks now produce about 1.8 billion cubic feet/day (bcf/d) — more than 40 per cent of India’s total production and more than 30 per cent of total consumption.

The British-based company figures there are at least 15 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas resources in the blocks — enough to meet India’s current rate of consumption for seven years. It is BP’s biggest investment in exploration and production in Asia, with a potential total of US $20 billion linked to exploration successes.

“It would be wrong to downplay the prospectivity of the 23 blocks. There has to be a reason BP bought in. Fundamentally, BP is in the business of producing hydrocarbons,” Quin said. At the same time, BP could use its technical expertise to boost output at Reliance’s D6 block.

It is India’s biggest gas find but output has slipped because of technical problems to about 52 million cubic metres a day (mcm/d) from 60 mcm/d in October and short of a target 80 mcm/d.

Reliance Industries will benefit from the tie-up with BP by being able to take advantage of BP’s technical capabilities, analysts said, in turn enhancing the valuation of India’s biggest company’s existing assets. BP India head Sashi Mukundan would not be drawn on future output estimates.
Agencies

RIL KG-D6 production has gone down: Government

renjiniv — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 06:59:10 +0000

Reliance Industries (RIL) is producing 50-51 million standard cubic meters of natural gas per day (mmscmd) at its prolific eastern offshore KG-D6 fields, which is about 15 per cent lower than middle of 2010.

“Currently, the quantum of natural gas production from block KG-DWN-98/2 (or KG-D6) operated by Reliance is about 50 to 51 mmscmd,” minister of state for petroleum and natural gas RPN Singh said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha. The KG-D6 fields, off the Andhra coast, have helped double the natural gas availability in the country, but have seen a sharp dip in the past few months. Production had touched over 60 mmscmd in mid-2010.

“DGH under this ministry is constantly monitoring the production performance of the block,” Singh said. “DGH has asked the contractor (Reliance) to expeditiously drill more development wells in D1 and D3 fields as approved in the field development plan.” Gas production from Dhirubhai-1 and 3 (D1 and D3), two of the nearly one-and-half dozen discoveries in KG-D6, began on April 1, 2009. The 50-51 mmscmd output includes about 8 mmscmd being produced from MA oilfield in the same block.

“The average production from KG-D6 in 2010-11 (till January 31, 2011) has been 56.94 mmscmd,” said oil minister S Jaipal Reddy, in reply to a separate question. “According to the approved field development plan (FDP), the production from KG-D6 fields is projected to increase to 80 mmscmd in 2012-13.”

The approved FDP for Dhirubhai-1 and 3 envisages gas production reaching 80 mmscmd in the third year of commercial production, with effect from 2012-13. The gas output from KG-D6 has helped the nation’s natural gas production jump 12.80 Per cent to 53.59 billion cubic meters (bcm) in 2010-11 as against 47.51 bcm in 2009-10.
Agencies

BP sees over 15 tcf gas resources in RIL blocks

renjiniv — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 09:13:26 +0000

BP PLC estimates there are 15 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas resources in the 23 blocks it has bought into in its $7.2 billion deal with Reliance Industries and there could be more, the company’s India head said.
Sashi Mukundan told Reuters gas prices in the Indian market had the potential to rise and, if necessary, the two companies would build a terminal to import liquefied natural gas (LNG) to take advantage of an increasing appetite for market-priced gas.
“BP’s estimate today is that (the 23 blocks) have 15 tcf gas resources … there is a much larger running room and our coming into this (shows) we believe that we can jointly significantly improve the production,” he said in an interview on Thursday.
Reliance’s D6 block in the Krishna Godavari basin off the east coast is India’s biggest gas producer, but output has slipped on technical problems to about 52 million cubic metres a day (mcmd) from 60 mcmd in 2010 and short of a target 80 mcmd.
Mukundan was speaking to Reuters a day after arriving back from Britain where the companies signed the deal — the biggest foreign direct investment in India’s exploration sector.
The Indian partnership marks the second major deal under BP’s new chief executive Bob Dudley, who last month agreed a share swap with Russia’s state-controlled Rosneft to jointly explore the Arctic for offshore oil and gas.
It is BP’s biggest investment in exploration and production space in Asia and plants it firmly in the fourth of the emerging BRIC economies along with operations in Brazil and China, after it picked up little in Indian government licensing rounds.
“We missed the boat until NELP V,” Mukundan said, adding that in 1999, when India launched its New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP), gas prices were too low and the potential of the country was not widely known.
Cairn Energy, which picked up blocks in India before the launch of NELP, is currently trying to sell a majority stake in its Indian arm Cairn India to Vedanta Resources but is bogged down in a royalty dispute with its Indian partner.
Agencies

R-Infra’s generation assets transferred to R-Power

makarandg — Fri, 28 May 2010 12:13:26 +0000

In move to bring all power generation assets of Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) under one entitity generation assets of 433 Mw belonging to R-Infra were transferred to Reliance Power.

The Enterprise value of these assets has been valued at Rs. 1095 crore by the advisory firm KPMG, said press release issued by the Reliance Power. With the transfer of 433 Mw of generation assets, Reliance Power’s total generation portfolio has crossed 1,000 Mw mark as 600 Mw capacity at Reliance Power’s Rosa plant being already commissioned.

The assets of R-Infra which were transferred to Reliance Power include 220 Mw plantat Samalkot in Andhra Pradesh, 165 Mw at Kochi in Kerala and 48 Mw plant in goa and all plants are gasbased plants.

The press release also mentions, there is considerable scope for capacity expansion at all these sites, perhaps indication of both brothers reaching to the agreement on gas supply.

Govt wants greater say in Petronet LNG

renjiniv — Tue, 04 May 2010 10:19:13 +0000

The government is keen on having a greater say in the affairs of Petronet LNG as it is looking at appointing a senior civil servant as director on board of the nation’s biggest liquefied natural gas (LNG) importer. The firm in which state-owned oil and gas sector companies GAIL, IOC, ONGC and BPCL hold 12.5 per cent stake each is a private firm with the petroleum secretary as its non-executive chairman. Industry sources claimed that the petroleum ministry is toying with the idea of appointing a joint secretary on the board of the company to get a greater say in the procurement of LNG from nations like Qatar. Apurva Chandra, joint secretary (marketing and gas) in ministry of petroleum and natural gas, attended the Petronet board meeting last week as a special invitee and may be the ministry’s choice for becoming a full-time director on the company’s board, reports PTI.
Sources said the government cannot nominate any director on Petronet as it is not a shareholder in the company. A ministry official cannot be an independent director nor can he be considered as a promoter-director. A ministry nominee may fail the corporate governance norms, set out by market regulator SEBI, according to which all the four promoter PSUs have been given a position on the company board.
Besides, the French firm GDF International, which has 10 per cent stake and Gujarat Maritime Board and Asian Development Bank, which have 5.2 per cent interest, have been given directorial position in capacity as promoter. An additional director can be appointed on Petronet board only with approval of the company shareholders and after passing the muster of SEBI and DPE guidelines.

China replaces supply by Reliance and others to Iran

renjiniv — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 10:27:00 +0000

The mounting global pressure, especially from the US has forced several companies, including Reliance and Russia’s LUKOIL, have stopped selling gasoline to Iran. But the place has been quickly occupied by those from China. Several US lawmakers – both from the House of Representatives and the Senate – had in the past had raised question over Reliance’s business ties with Iran and had urged the Export Import Bank to rescind loan guarantees to Reliance.

“India’s Reliance has been a major supplier of gasoline to Iran. However, in January 2009, Reliance reportedly agreed to terminate gasoline sales to Iran once its current contractual obligations expire,” said a latest report of the Congressional Research Service (CRS). CRS is the independent and bipartisan research wing of the US Congress that prepares periodic report for US lawmakers on issues of their interest.

“Previously, some members of Congress called on the US Export-Import Bank to rescind two loan guarantees worth US $ 900 million authorised to RIL, in support of RIL’s petroleum refinery equipment and services (US $ 500 million) and for gas development and exploration in India’s Bay of Bengal region (US $ 400 million),” the report said. In fact, Reliance is not the only company to have terminated its gasoline supplies to Iran, the CRS report said.

RIL may enter US retail market through Atlas Energy

renjiniv — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 10:09:28 +0000

RIL plans to sell gas to retail consumers in the US and will use its newly-minted partnership with Atlas Energy to try and build a brand name in the intensely competitive market reports the ecomonic times.

RIL, which bought 40 per cent in Atlas Energy recently, plans to use the pipeline infrastructure that Atlas already has to supply through its own network of gas stations in the world’s biggest energy market. A RIL spokesperson declined comment on the development. A person close to the development said RIL’s US venture, a subsidiary of RIL Netherlands, will transport gas using the network. The company initially plans to supply to consumers in New York, Virginia among others.

Having acquired the stake in the shale gas fields, RIL along with its joint venture partner Atlas Energy will soon begin work on the development of the field to start producing gas. As opposed to many crude oil and gas acreages, the shale gas fields are all proven assets (where time and money are not wasted on exploration) and RIL can get into the development stage right away.

But India’s biggest company and largest refiner will find the US market a tough nut to crack. The retail market is dominated by giants such as Exxon-Mobil and BP that have spent many decades building network and pipeline infrastructure. They also have a strong brand presence.

PNGRB criticised for haste in tariff hike for GAIL and RGTIL

renjiniv — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 08:11:07 +0000

The downstream regulator, Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board, has fixed a higher gas transportation tariffs for two pipelines owned by Gail India and Reliance Gas Transmission & Infrastructure (RGTIL) without public consultations and with undue haste, some members of its board have alleged.

Credit rating agency CARE estimates this tariff structure will help Reliance Gas Transmission to mop up revenue of about Rs 5,400 crore in 2010-11. “The board brushed aside suggestions of some members that consumers should be heard before tariffs are fixed,” an official in the PNGRB said.

Pipeline tariffs are an important part of input costs for consumers of natural gas such as power, steel and fertiliser firms. As a pipeline developer enjoys monopoly, the regulator fixes gas transmission tariffs to protect consumers’ interest.

A member said that the Regulator’s board rejected another suggestion of a member to corroborate private consultants’ validation of companies’ capital expenditure in laying pipelines.

GAIL says no to uniform gas pricing

superadmin — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 07:24:26 +0000

GAIL (India) Ltd has said it is not possible to pool the price of natural gas sourced from different fields and sell it at a uniform price to all sectors. This effectively opposes a plan by the petroleum ministry to move to a pooled price regime. GAIL has submitted a report to the ministry stating that the different types of consumers and the different prices at which gas producers sell it come in the way of such a plan. Consumers include the power, fertilizer and petrochemical sectors and city households.

Gas from the Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL)-operated KG D6 field in the Krishna-Godavari basin is priced at US $4.20 per million British thermal unit (mmBtu), compared with US $1.82 per mmBtu for gas produced by ONGC and Oil India.

Gas from the BG Group Plc-operated Panna-Mukta-Tapti fields US $5.73 per mmBtu while Ravva off the Andhra Pradesh coast is priced at US $5.50 per mmBtu.