Oil minister: India will be a refining hub and will rely on fossil fuels up to 2040.
Hardeep Singh Puri, India's Oil Minister, said on Tuesday that India will continue to be the world's third largest oil consumer and importer until at least 2040. The country is also positioning itself to become a major refining center. Puri, speaking at a Bengaluru refining conference, said that while global refineries are shrinking as the energy transition proceeds at an unpredictable rate, India will still rely on fossils fuels up until 2040.
Sources say that India's HPCL will start a LNG terminal by the end of the year and seeks a long-term supply.
Three sources claim that India's Hindustan Petroleum Corp. (HPCL) has been in discussions with eight to nine companies about a long-term LNG supply. HPCL built the sixth LNG import terminal in India at Chhara, located in western India. New Delhi is trying to increase the use of cleaner fuels. It was the bad weather that prevented the company from commissioning the plant earlier this year. Two sources stated that the company intends to use the three month window of fair weather, which begins in November, to commission the LNG Terminal.
Mitsui Looks to Sell BassGas Stake
Japan's Mitsui & Co has put its 40% stake in the BassGas project off southeastern Australia up for sale, the company said on Thursday.Mitsui's stake in the BassGas project, which includes the undeveloped Trefoil gas project, could be worth about A$360 million ($244 million), according to Credit Suisse. However, a person with knowledge of the asset estimated it at about A$140 million.Mitsui Australia's spokesman said Rothschild has been engaged to advise on the sale of the stake…
Hindustan Petroleum Profit Dives
State-owned refiner Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd posted a 37.1 percent fall in second-quarter profit on Thursday, dented by rising costs amid higher raw material and forex expenses.Net profit came in at 10.92 billion rupees ($148.62 million) in the quarter ended Sept. 30, compared with 17.35 billion rupees a year earlier, HPCL said.Analysts on average had expected a profit of 15.11 billion rupees, according to Refinitiv data.Income…
How Refiners Plan to Grapple With Fuel Oil Output After 2020
High-sulphur fuel oil (HSFO), essentially the leftovers of an oil refiner's output, will still flow from refineries around the world even after new rules start up in 2020 curtailing its use in the global shipping fleet, a Reuters survey showed.Sixty percent of the 33 refineries contacted by Reuters in a global survey will still produce HSFO in 2020 although the supply will tighten as 70 percent of these refiners plan to reduce their output.Starting that year…
BP, Shell, Goldman Mull Indian Oil Stockpile Deals
BP, Royal Dutch Shell, Goldman Sachs, Trafigura, Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals and Hindustan Petroleum Corp. have expressed interest in filling India's strategic oil reserve at Padur in the southern Karnataka state.
India's LNG Play Risks Eventual Shortages
India is planning to join the Asian rush to boost the use of natural gas over coal, a further sign that the liquefied natural gas (LNG) market will tighten faster than previously expected. India's state oil refiners Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum aim to raise the contribution of natural gas to between 5 percent and 15 percent of their incomes over the coming years, up from virtually zero currently. This is part…
Newest Outpost for US Crude Exports: India
India is set to emerge as a key market for American crude exports in coming months, as refineries in that country are ramping up "test" purchases of U.S. grades to diversify their imports. U.S. exports recently set a weekly record with nearly 2 million barrels of crude a day sent overseas. But shipments to India have been rare, with just a few deliveries since the U.S. lifted its ban on crude exports in late 2015. Indian refineries…
IOC to Lift U.S. Crude for December Delivery
Indian Oil Corp, the country's largest refiner, has bought two new types of U.S. crude for December delivery as it tests different grades from the United States, trade sources said on Tuesday. IOC bought 1 million barrels each of U.S. Southern Green Canyon (SGC) and WTI Midland crude likely from a Chinese trader, the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The purchase was in addition to 2 million barrels of Basra Light crude to be delivered in the same month.
ONGC May Consider Selling Stakes in State Firms to Fund HPCL Deal
India's top explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corporation may consider selling its stake in other state firms to partly fund its acquisition of state-run Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd, its chairman D. K. Sarraf said. ONGC owns a near 14 percent stake in state-run Indian Oil Corp and a near 5 percent stake in GAIL which the company could consider selling, he told a news conference. "There are several ways of funding, we can raise funds from market…
HPCL Makes First U.S. Oil Purchase
Indian state refiner Hindustan Petroleum Corp has made its first purchase of U.S. oil, buying high sulphur crude Mars in a tender, company chairman M. K. Surana said on Monday. Earlier Indian Oil Corp and Bharat Petroleum Corp , both state refiners, had purchased the U.S. oil through tenders. HPCL has bought 1 million barrels of Mars oil from trader Trafigura for delivery in December at the southern Indian port of Vizag, he said. Reporting by Nidhi Verma
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 Cut Iranian Oil Purchases in Row Over Gas Field
Indian state refiners will cut oil imports from Iran in 2017/18 by a fifth, as New Delhi takes a more assertive stance over an impasse on a giant gas field that it wants awarded to an Indian consortium, sources familiar with the matter said. India, Iran's biggest oil buyer after China, was among a handful of countries that continued to deal with the Persian Gulf nation despite Western sanctions over Tehran's nuclear programme. However…
Essar bags 100 km gas pipeline contract
Essar Projects, a leading EPC (Engineering Procurement & Construction) company, today announced that it has won a contract for a 100-km pipeline from GSPL India Gasnet Ltd. (GIGL). The project involves laying of natural gas pipelines, with diametres ranging from 12 inches to 18 inches, between Jalandhar and Amritsar, a critical segment of the 2,100-km Mehsana–Bhatinda–Jammu–Srinagar Pipeline (MBJSPL) project that passes through 29 districts in five states.
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…
India's 2016 Iran oil Imports at Record High
India's Apr-Dec Iran oil imports up 125 percent to 530,000 bpd; India 2016 total oil imports up 7.4 percent to 4.3 million bpd. India's annual oil imports from Iran surged to a record high in 2016 as some refiners resumed purchases after the lifting of sanctions against Tehran, according to ship tracking data and a report compiled by Thomson Reuters Oil Research and Forecasts. The sharp increase propelled Iran into fourth place among India's suppliers in 2016, up from seventh position in 2015.
Petronet bets on LNG as a fuel to Drive Demand
India's top gas importer Petronet LNG is betting on liquefied natural gas-powered ships and vehicles to drive up demand for the cleaner fuel, its managing director said, helping the world's third most polluting nation to improve air quality. Prabhat Singh told reporters he expected a shift to LNG-driven vehicles to create "reasonable demand" for the fuel in a country where many industries are not yet linked to the pipe grid. India currently lags Asian rival China, where thousands of trucks and buses already run on LNG.
India's IOC Cut Diesel Prices by 0.8%
Indian Oil Corp (IOC) will cut the price of diesel by 0.8 percent from Saturday and that of gasoline by 3.5 percent, reflecting changes in global fuel prices, the company said in a statement. India's three state-run oil companies, IOC, Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd and Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd, tend to adjust retail prices of fuels in concert. A litre of diesel will sell for 54.28 rupees in the Indian capital, New Delhi, while gasoline will cost 62.51 rupees a litre from Saturday.
India Starts Settling Iran Oil Dues via EIH
Indian refiners have turned to State Bank of India and Germany-based bank Europaeisch-Iranische Handelsbank AG (EIH) to speed payment of billions of Iranian oil dues they still owe to Tehran, after delays in another money route. Refiners in India, Iran's top oil buyer after China, last month resumed settling their back debt of about $6.6 billion after the lifting earlier this year of some of the sanctions against Tehran had opened up oil trade and banking channels.
Aramco Mulls Indian Refinery Investments
Saudi Aramco is considering proposals to buy stakes in Indian oil refining and petrochemical projects, India's Oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Monday, as the world's biggest oil exporter seeks outlets for its oil. India, the world's third-biggest oil consumer, imports almost 80 percent of its crude requirements, mostly from Middle East nations. In the first quarter, Saudi Arabia was India's biggest exporter of oil, sending about 889,000 barrel per day (bpd) to the country, or about 21 percent of the total.
