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Murli Deora rules out increase in diesel prices
Union Petroleum Minister Murli Deora on Wednesday said that the Government was not planning any increase in diesel and LPG prices for the time being as it would only aggravate the inflation picture. "We are trying to see there is no further price increase," Deora told reporters in New Delhi today. "If global oil prices go up then something has to be done. But we are doing our best to see that essential commodity prices don't increase," he added.
It may be recalled that last week, a meeting of the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) was indefinitely postponed on Deora’s insistence amid fears that any hike in diesel and LPG would have a cascading effect on overall inflation. Public sector oil marketing companies (OMC)s are free to raise petrol prices but diesel prices are yet to be de-controlled. Read More…
RIL abandons well in KG basin: Hardy Oil
Hardy Oil and Gas plc said on Wednesday that Reliance Industries Ltd. has plugged and abandoned KG-D9-B3 well, the second exploratory well in the company's D9 (KG-DWN-2001/1) exploration licence in the Krishna Godavari Basin. Hardy Oil holds a 10% participating interest in the licence which is operated by Reliance Industries. The well was drilled to a total depth of 3,829 m MDRT by the Transocean drill ship 'Discoverer India' in a water depth of 2,948 m at a location some 47 km away from the nearest well, Hardy Oil said in a statement. The well encountered two tertiary aged reservoir quality sand packages of 70 and 40 m gross thickness respectively, in which gas shows ranging from 6-9% were recorded, Hardy Oil said. Read More…
OVL in talks with Russia's Rosneft for new assets
ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL), the overseas arm of state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd, is in talks to partner Russia's largest crude oil producer OAO Rosneft in tapping a hydrocarbon field and setting up a refinery in that country. If the deal is clinched, it would provide India crucial access to additional hydrocarbon reserves and enhance the strategic advantage of Indian oil companies overseas. The talks centre on partnerships in exploring the Yurubcheno-Tokhomskoye hydrocarbon field and the 20-million-tonne (mt) Primorsk refinery and petrochemical complex to be set up in the far east of Russia. India, relying on its historical association with Russia to tap energy resources, signed a comprehensive agreement on cooperation in the energy sector during Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's visit to India last month.
"Russia is the most impor tant strategic partner for India as compared to other countries," said Anil Razdan, a former special secretary in the petroleum ministry. "Given China's presence on the asset acquisition scene, whatever we can do at a fair price and for good technology with Russia should be done. Read More…
In focus News
India in a Persian oil spill
India's relations with Iran have hit a new air pocket. India has suspended a long-established mode of settling trade accounts with that country. It is only the latest in a series of incidents that have hit relations between the two countries. Last Friday, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) suspended payments for oil imports made by Indian companies from Iran that use the Asian Clearing Union (ACU), a clearing house established in 1974 to process multilateral payments between South Asian countries and Iran. ACU is headquartered in Tehran.
India imports close to $12 billion worth of crude oil (roughly 400,000 barrels per day, or bpd, of Iran's two million bpd exports) every year. After payments through ACU were suspended, Indian companies asked the National Iranian Oil Co (NIOC) to nominate a European bank through which payments could be made. Read More…
Domestic News
ONGC ties up GAIL for natural gas and petrochemicals business
Beginning the first working day of the year 2011, managements of ONGC and GAIL reached a landmark understanding for mutual business growth covering natural gas as well as petro-chemicals. This over-arching understanding was documented in the form of various agreements and exchange of letters, which were initialed in the office of GAIL in the presence of the CMDs of both organizations.
Initialing of these agreements was also witnessed by other Board Members and senior functionaries from both organizations as well as from ONGC Petro Additions Limited (OPaL), a joint venture promoted by ONGC.
As regards understanding reached for gas business, both companies would work together for exclusive sale of natural gas produced by ONGC from its various fields to GAIL during next 3 years. This joint initiative will serve as a catalyst for effective monetization of gas from future E&P fields of ONGC, with GAIL providing the infrastructure and marketing tie-up for supply to potential customers.
This integrated effort of ONGC and GAIL shall also increase the availability of firm gas sourcing for infrastructure projects. The two companies also reached an understanding in swapping gas available to both the companies so as to optimise the logistics and costs.
As for OPaL, the agreements initialed today signify GAIL formally agreeing to become a co-promoter of 1.1 MMTPA Ethylene Cracker Petro-chemical complex, under implementation in Dahej SEZ area, at a capital investment of Rs.19,535 crore. Read More…
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Global News
US probe pins blame on BP for Gulf oil spill
A US government probe into the Gulf of Mexico oil spill blamed management failures at BP, but also highlighted the role of contractors Transocean Ltd. and Halliburton Co.
A US presidential commission investigating the causes of last year’s major oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico released some key findings of its final report, due on January
11th. It stated that most of the mistakes and oversights leading to the explosion
at BP’s well can be traced back to a single overarching failure — a failure of management.
The commission said that problems with deepwater drilling are "systemic" and that only "significant reform" will prevent another disaster.
Separately, media reports suggested that rival Royal Dutch Shell had weighed a takeover bid in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
Chesapeake trims production target, to cut debt
Chesapeake Energy Corporation, daily production for the 2010 fourth quarter averaged approximately 2.9 billion cubic feet of natural gas equivalent (bcfe), a decrease of 4% below the 3.0 bcfe produced per day in the 2010 third quarter and an increase of 11% over the 2.6 bcfe of daily production in the 2009 fourth quarter. At the end of the 2010 third quarter, the company sold future production through a volumetric production payment covering a portion of its Barnett Shale assets, including approximately 350 mmcfe per day of production in the 2010 fourth quarter. Excluding this sale, the company's 2010 fourth quarter production would have increased 7% sequentially and 25% year over year.
Chesapeake's average daily production of 2.9 bcfe for the 2010 fourth quarter consisted of approximately 2.6 billion cubic feet of natural gas (bcf) (88% on a natural gas equivalent basis) and 59.5 thousand barrels of oil and natural gas liquids (NGLs) (12% on a natural gas equivalent basis). For the 2010 fourth quarter, the company's year-over-year growth rate of natural gas production was 5% and its year-over-year growth rate of oil and NGLs production was 100%.
Chesapeake's daily production for the 2010 full year averaged approximately 2.8 bcfe, an increase of 14% over the 2.5 bcfe of daily production for the 2009 full year. The 2010 full year was Chesapeake's 21st consecutive year of sequential production growth.
For 2011-12, company plans to reduce long-term debt by 25% by Substantially reducing leasehold spending and by reducing its two-year production growth rate to 25% from its previously planned growth rate of 30-40% through asset monetizations.