India to End Federal Control of Gas prices, Lift LNG transport Use
India will gradually end federal controls on gas pricing as it seeks to attract foreign investment and technology to lift local output, oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Friday.India, which is a large emitter of greenhouse gases and has multiple gas pricing regimes, aims to raise the share of gas in its energy mix to 15% by 2030, from 6.2%."This is an incentive we are giving to investors to come to India and take advantage of pricing and marketing freedom and produce more and invest more," Pradhan said at the BNEF summit.To boost gas usage…
India to Buy Russian Crude Oil
Russian oil and gas giant Rosneft has signed a contract with India’s largest fuel retailer Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) for supply of 2 million tonne (MT) crude oil to India by end 2020.The Moscow-headquartered integrated energy company said in a press release that the oil will be shipped to the refiner via the port of Novorossiysk.The signing took place during the visit of the Chief Executive Officer of Rosneft Igor Sechin to New Delhi. During this visit, a working meeting was also held with Dharmendra Pradhan…
India to Invite Foreign Investment in State-owned Oil Companies
International energy firms will be invited to participate in India's privatization of state-owned oil companies, the country's Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said late on Monday.Pradhan said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently met with the chief executives of energy firms in Houston, including those from Exxon Mobil Corp, BP Plc, Royal Dutch Shell, Rosneft Oil Co, Saudi Aramco and Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (Adnoc).This is the first time Pradhan has signaled the government's intent bring foreign investment into the country's state-owned oil companies."We are inviting oil majors…
India Launches 2nd Auction of Small Discovered O&G Blocks
India launched its second auction of small discovered oil and gas blocks on Thursday, as the south Asian nation looks to quickly monetise its hydrocarbon resources.The bidding for 59 fields will begin in the first week of September and will close on Dec. 18.The contracts will be awarded in January, oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan said.The blocks offered under the latest round has reserves of about 1.4 billion barrels, he added.Reporting by Nidhi Verma in New Delhi
India Offers Incentives to State-owned Oil and Gas Firms
Oil and Natural Gas Corp Ltd and Oil India Ltd will pay royalty and cess tax only to the extent of their equity holding in oil and gas blocks given to them before 1999, Indian Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Wednesday after a cabinet meeting.The companies had to pay 100 percent royalty and cess tax from the blocks under the earlier production sharing contract, making it a big disincentive to invest in production growth of the blocks, Pradhan said.Pradhan said the cabinet on Wednesday also extended the time period given to oil and gas companies to develop hydrocarbon blocks in the north eastern part of India.
ADNOC to Supply First Oil Cargo for Indian Emergency Reserve
Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) will supply the first oil cargo for India's strategic petroleum reserve (SPR) over the weekend, an Indian government statement said, becoming the first foreign company to lease storage in the country.India, hedging against energy security risks as it imports most of its oil needs, is building emergency storage in underground caverns to hold 36.87 million barrels of crude.ADNOC chief executive Sultan Al-Jaber and Indian oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who is visiting the UAE from May 12 to May 14…
India Seeks Japan's Help to Build LNG Facilities
India asked Japan on Tuesday to help build infrastructure needed to boost the usage of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in India and elsewhere in Asia, India's oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan said after a meeting with Japan's trade minister Hiroshige Seko.India wants to increase the share of gas, which is a cleaner fuel than oil, to 15 percent of its energy usage by 2030 from 6.2 percent currently."Explored opportunities for Japanese investments in India's gas infrastructure and SPR (strategic petroleum reserve) program…
GAIL to Start Importing LNG Under Gazprom Deal
GAIL (India) to begin getting liquefied natural gas (LNG) under reworked deal with Gazprom from May, India's oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan told lawmakers on Wednesday GAIL signed a 2.5 million tonnes a year LNG import deal with Gazprom in 2012 Supplies under the reworked deal will be gradually ramped up and likely to reach full volumes in 5-6 years, Pradhan said GAIL and Gazprom in January renegotiated the gas purchase deal including pricing Reporting by Nidhi Verma
India to offer $3-4 bln Development Plan for Giant Iran Gas Field
India is set to offer a $3-4 billion development plan for the Farzad B gas field to Iran next week after Tehran reduced the scope of the project, two sources familiar with the matter said. Relations between the two countries, which have long held deep trade ties, were strained last year after Iran sought other investors for the field and media reports suggested Tehran would award it to Russia's Gazprom. In retaliation, India directed its state refiners to cut oil imports from Iran. At a meeting in New Delhi in February…
Indian Oil to Boost Panipat Refinery Capacity
Indian Oil Corp Ltd plans to increase the capacity of its Panipat refinery by two thirds to 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) at a cost of 231.16 billion rupees rupees ($3.64 billion), the country's largest refiner said on Wednesday. India is increasing refining capacity to keep pace with the expected growth in fuel demand as Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeks to boost the manufacturing sector. The energy-hungry nation's refinery capacity has more-than-doubled since the start of the millennium to about 5 million bpd.
GAIL Renegotiating U.S. LNG Supply Deals
Indian gas firm GAIL (India) Ltd is renegotiating its liquefied natural gas purchase deals with U.S.-based Cheniere Energy and Dominion Cove Point, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan told lawmakers on Monday. GAIL has signed contracts for sourcing up to 5.8 million tonnes of LNG from the United States. "GAIL has held number of discussions with Cheniere Energy (Sabine Terminal) and Dominion Cove Point LNG LP (DCP Terminal), for re-negotiation of the contracts," Pradhan said, adding the latest discussions took place in November.
India Looks at Creating Oil Giant to Take on Global Rivals
India plans to create a giant oil company by combining state-owned firms, finance minister Arun Jaitley said on Wednesday, as the world's third largest oil consumer looks to better compete with global majors in acquiring foreign assets. New Delhi is struggling to raise local oil production and imports about 80 percent of its oil. Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2015 set a goal of cutting that to 67 percent by 2020. India is replacing China as the driver of global oil demand growth and the International Energy Agency expects it to account for a quarter of global energy use by 2040.
Oil Explorer ONGC Keen to Buy Stake in Refiner HPCL
India's top explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) is keen to acquire the government's stake in oil refiner Hindustan Petroleum Corp (HPCL), the country's oil minister said on Wednesday. "ONGC has shown interest," Dharmendra Pradhan told reporters in New Delhi. "In my view, HPCL's independent identity and brand will be protected in the process," HPCL Chairman Mukesh Kumar Surana said, indicating the refiner could become a subsidiary of ONGC. (Reporting by Nidhi Verma and Neha Dasgupta; Editing by Mark Potter)
India to Buy $1 Billion of US Crude Oil
Following Indianan Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s June 2017 visit to the U.S., where President Donald Trump and PM Modi agreed to deepen the energy engagement between the two countries, India oil companies have started the process of procuring crude oil from the U.S. Now six weeks after the visit, the first orders for $1 billion of crude are being placed. Two Indian oil giants, Indian Oil Corporation and Bharat Petroleum, have already taken delivery of the first 2 million barrels that have shipped from ports in Texas and Louisiana. The first shipments will reach Paradip (Odisha, India) in the last week of September.
Petronet Plans LNG Terminals in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh
India’s biggest player in liquefied natural gas (LNG) Petronet LNG Ltd has plans to establish a 5 million tonne LNG terminal in Bangladesh and 1million-tonne terminal in Sri Lanka. The Bangladesh terminal is in addition to 3.5 mt terminal that the country is looking to set up at Matar Bari in Moheshkhali Island of Cox’s Bazar district or Anwara, Chittagong, for which Petronet is one of the firms that has been shortlisted. "Bangladesh has huge unmet gas demand particularly to power generation. So during the recent visit of Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan to Dhaka…
BP India Head Says India Can Produce 10-15 tcf of Gas by 2022
India has the potential to unlock gas reserves of at least 10-15 trillion cubic feet (tcf) by 2022 on the basis of discoveries made so far, Sashi Mukundan, country head for BP India said in a conference on Tuesday. This production requires up to 3 trillion rupees (about $45 billion) investment by 2022 and can generate revenue of 2.5 trillion rupees, said Mukundan, who also heads the energy committee of industry lobby group the Confederation of Indian Industries. "This domestic production can substitute 10 trillion rupees worth of imports," he added.
India to Fund Major Gas Pipeline to Boost Eastern States
India's government will partly fund a $2 billion gas pipeline project linking five eastern states to help kick-start economic growth in a region that has trailed the rest of the country, the oil minister said on Wednesday. The 2,500-km pipeline is to be built by state-run GAIL (India) Ltd, and this will be the first time the government has offered finance for such a project as part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's plan for more balanced development. Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said the government will meet 40 percent of the cost of the pipeline that will run through the states of Uttar Pradesh…
India to Double LNG Import
India plans to double its LNG import capacity in one year to augment gas based transport systems. The country will seek help from Russia and the US to make such ambitious plan possible. India plans to more than double its liquefied natural gas (LNG) annual import capacity to 50 million tonnes in the next few years, PTI reports quoting Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. "We currently have LNG import and regassification capacity of 21 million tonnes. The minister said that as part of the strategy to move towards a gas-based economy, the first LNG-driven bus is likely to start plying in Kerala early next month.
India's ONGC says Venezuela's PDVSA to Supply Oil
Venezuela's national oil company Petroleos de Venezuela has agreed to supply oil on a monthly basis to India to help settle dues which Venezuela owes to India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd, ONGC Chairman D K Sarraf said on Thursday. He said the agreement with PDVSA would be signed shortly. ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas subsidiary of ONGC, invested $190 million in 2009-10 in the San Cristobal project in Venezuela. However, the company got only a small part of its dividend from the field which continued to increase production.
India Gets Muted Response to Small Discovered Field Auction
India's first auction of small discovered fields drew a tepid response with local firms dominating the auction for operating assets estimated to hold 625 million barrels of oil and oil equivalent gas. India has received 134 bids from 42 companies, including five foreign bidders, for 34 contract areas, according to a government statement issued on Monday. No bids were received for 12 areas. India, the world's third biggest oil consumer, conducted foreign roadshows and eased rules to lure foreign investment and tap the nation's vast energy resources. India launched the auction after a gap of six years.
