With the festive season fast approaching the extent of power consumption will inevitably take a toll on the environment. In an effort to conserve energy and possibly capitalise on the potential of alternative energy, efficient lighting has become the mantra for most electronic companies. One of the more viable practices is harnessing solar power for lighting and serving wider needs of electrification in the country and numerous companies are realising its potential. More than 350 global and Indian light companies congregated in New Delhi to participate in Light India 2012: an exhibition where an extensive array of residential and commercial lighting equipment which included solar lights, LED lighting devices were showcased. The event organised by Messe Frankfurt Trade Fair India and Electric Lamps and Components Manufacturers Association (ELCOMA) was held earlier this month. ELCOMA is the Apex Body of Lighting Manufacturers in India and Messe Frankfurt is a German trade fair organiser, that has a global network of 28 subsidiaries in more than 150 countries. The event focused on green (environment friendly) lighting and energy efficiency and a number of companies introduced LED lights that run on solar energy. These lights contain in built reflectors that store sunlight and the cell generator panel (installed within the device) converts the stored energy into electricity. The life span of the batteries of these devices is about 3-4 years. The price of the solar LED lights already available in the market, starts from Rs 10-12,000 and varies according to the quality of the battery used in the solar LED light. These lights need a minimum of 12 volts to illuminate. Some of the big brand exhibitors who've introduced solar LED lights include Philips, Osram, Bajaj, Crompton, HPL, Donex Industries, Wipro and Energetic Lighting. "The usage of LED lights started 30 years ago when it was used as an indicator light in radios. The market for LED lights has experienced an exponential growth of 60-70 per cent in the past 3 years. The introduction of solar LED lights with its existing market share of 25-35 per cent will add to the existing value of LED lights," says Shyam Sujan, Secretary General of ELCOMA. Sujan estimates that revenue of Rs 800 crore can be earned from the sale of solar LED lights this year. Rajeev Chopra, MD of Philips Electronics, India believes that the launch of their new solar LED lighting solutions is in line with the company's vision to enhance consumer experience by making lighting more accessible and dependable. "Our new solutions are aimed at offering a reliable lighting source that also helps the environment," says Chopra."Solar LED lights will prove to be the next big thing that is eco-friendly and cheap at the same time. Our company will soon replace the existing LED fittings with solar LED lights in Parliament" informs Mohit Sharma, VP of HPL India. Most companies are now eyeing the rural markets across India and Philips in particular, has undertaken electrification projects across villages. According to a PTI report, the company is s currently executing a project for installing 19,000 solar LED street lights in Tamil Nadu in association with Tata Power Solar and Su-kam.
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Pakistan on 17 October' 2012 said it is willing to import diesel and jet fuel from India if the fuel is offered a "right price", but did not say if it will lift ban on movement of fuel from across the border. "We need to know the price? if good price is given, why not," visiting Pakistan's Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Asim Hussain on the sidelines of the Petrotech 2012 Conference here. "If right prices are given, we have no problems importing." While Pakistan has removed fuel imports from its list of items that are not allowed to be imported from India, it allows import of diesel and jet fuel only in ships. India, which has refineries across the border, are keen to take the road route to the reach the fuel-deficient Pakistan "I think a way could be found as import of products is not banned as such," the Minister said. He said a team of Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd officials will soon visit Pakistan to discuss prices. Pakistan has during recent times liberalised its trade with India. This year, it changed the structure of the list of items that can be traded between the two countries. Earlier, there was a 'positive list' that listed items that could be traded. This restricted trade to only some items. Now, it has moved a new 'negative list' which specifically identifies productions that cannot be traded, leaving room open for many more items to be traded. Islamabad has also in-principle agreed to grant India the 'most favoured nation' status over 15 years after it was given the same status by India. Meanwhile, Asim Hussain called on Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari and discussed a broad range of subjects, including trans-regional projects of energy cooperation as well as importance of strengthening cooperation in education, especially in the field of medicine. The two leaders expressed satisfaction over the ongoing bilateral dialogue process and emphasized the importance of continuing high-level contacts between Pakistan and India. They also emphasized the need for enhancing people-to- people contacts. Hussain conveyed greetings of the President and Prime Minister of Pakistan to the Vice President. (PTI)
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Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA is in talks with Reliance Industries and ONGC to explore Ayacucho and Boyaca fields, Fadi Kabboul, executive director, corporate planning of PDVSA, told reporters at an industry conference in India. On 25 September, Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said his country would partner with Reliance to develop a block in the south American country's Orinoco extra heavy crude belt. Kabboul said the company would raise exports to Asia to 2.8 million bpd by 2018 against 1.2 million bpd in 2012. (Reuters)
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The world's urban areas will more than double in size by 2030, presenting an opportunity to build greener and healthier cities, a UN study showed on 15 October. Simple planning measures such as more parks, trees or roof gardens could make cities less polluted and help protect plants and animals, especially in emerging nations led by China and India where city growth will be fastest, it said. "Rich biodiversity can exist in cities and is extremely critical to people's health and well-being," wrote Thomas Elmqvist of the Stockholm Resilience Centre, scientific editor of the Cities and Biodiversity Outlook. The world's urban population is expected to surge from just over 3.5 billion now to 4.9 billion by 2030, according to the assessment by the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. At the same time, the area to be covered by cities will expand by 150 percent, it said. "Most of this growth is expected to happen in small and medium-sized cities, not in megacities," according to the report, issued to coincide with a UN meeting on biodiversity in Hyderabad, India. More green spaces in cities can filter dust and pollution and soak up heat-trapping carbon dioxide. Some studies have shown that the presence of trees can help reduce asthma and allergies for children living nearby, it said. And the study said that cities were also home to a wide range of animals and plants. Cooling TreesMore than 65 per cent of Poland's bird species are found in Warsaw. In South Africa, Table Mountain national park, rich in wildlife, is surrounded by the Cape Town municipality. In the United States, Saguaro national park is just outside Tucson. "Sustainable urban development that supports valuable ecosystems presents a major opportunity for improving lives and livelihoods," said Achim Steiner, head of the UN Environment Programme. More tree cover in cities can help cool them in summers, meaning less need for air conditioning, it said. "Recent studies highlight the importance of even small urban gardens in providing habitat for native pollinators such as bees, which have declined alarmingly in recent years," the study added. And it pointed to real estate arguments for a greener city. In the US "city parks increase the value of nearby residential properties by an average of 5 percent; excellent parks can provide a 15 per cent increase," it said. Expansion of cities would often displace farms nearby, meaning that agriculture would have to shift elsewhere. That in turn would require care that new farmland did not, for instance, lead to damaging deforestation. "For the next 40 years urban growth will consume land approximately three times the size of France ... this is often the most prime agricultural land," Elmqvist said. Many existing cities are trying to get greener. In Bogota, Colombia, residents exercised more after city authorities introduced measures such as closing some roads on weekends and improving bus transport. In Mexico City, a "Green Roof Program" aims to create 10,000 square meters (107,000 sq ft) of new roof gardens every year. (Reuters)
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UK's BP plc has relinquished or surrendered 9 out of the 21 oil and gas blocks where it had bought 30 per cent stake from Reliance Industries for $7.2 billion, due to poor hydrocarbon prospects. BP had last year bought 30 per cent stake in a total of 23 oil and gas blocks of RIL including the gas discovery areas of KG-D6 and NEC-25. The Cabinet had however approved of BP taking stake in 21. Sources said that after initial assessment, RIL-BP have given up 9 out of the 21 blocks their joint venture had. The joint venture is currently focused on reviving the flagging eastern offshore KG-D6 fields and bringing the Mahanadi basin NEC-25 discoveries to production. Declining to comment on the relinquishment, BP India head Sashi Mukundan said, "We want to focus on quickly increasing production and finding more oil and gas". He said output from the main Dhirubhai-1 and 3 (D1&D3) gas fields in KG-D6 block would increase in 2015 after the joint venture puts up additional gas compression facilities and revives some of the six closed wells. D1&D3 fields have seen output fall from 53-54 million standard cubic meters per day achieved in March 2010 to 21-22 mmscmd currently as one-third of the wells ceased due to high water and sand ingress. Together with 5.5-6 mmscmd of output from MA field in the same area, the KG-D6 is currently 26.5-27 mmsmcd. "We are still hopeful of increasing production from D1&D3 by 2015," he said, adding that satellite fields around the main producing areas would be put on producing beginning 2016. Besides D1&D3 and MA, KG-D6 has 16 more gas discoveries". Mukundan said RIL-BP is working on sequencing the gas discoveries towards raising production.(PTI)
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Government on 29 August' 2012 said there was no question of anyone benefiting from coal block allocation as the mineral were never sold and accused the BJP of raking up the issue for no reason because of its desperation to come to power at the Centre before 2014. Telecom and HRD Minister Kapil Sibal also rejected Opposition demand for cancellation of the licences for coal block allocation, saying such a step would cause huge monetary loss and badly affect the country's power sector. "Under the nationalisation policy, coal cannot be sold... Coal from the blocks allotted was never sold. So, who could have benefitted," he asked while addressing a press conference at the Congress headquarters. "Why is there so much of noise? Did anyone sell the coal," he asked. He accused the BJP of not bothering about the country's interest and said it was thinking only how to come to power before 2014, when the Lok Sabha elections are due. Slamming BJP for its tacticts of disrupting Parliament, Sibal alleged that the "ideology" used to assassinate Mahatma Gandhi is being used now to "kill" Indian democracy. "The BJP does not think about the nation. It wants to come to power before 2014. It just believes in the ideology of disruption and killing of democracy," the HRD Minister said. On demands that the controversial coal block allocations should be cancelled, he said, "We cannot cancel the licences. It will be lead to wastage of crores of ruppees. Many banks are involved and the decision will affect the power sector badly."(PTI)
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UK's BP plc has surrendered 9 out of the 21 oil and gas blocks where it had bought 30 per cent stake from Reliance Industries for $7.2 billion, due to poor hydrocarbon prospects. BP had last year bought 30 per cent stake in a total of 23 oil and gas blocks of RIL including the gas discovery areas of KG-D6 and NEC-25. The Cabinet had however approved of BP taking stake in 21. Sources said that after initial assessment, RIL-BP have given up 9 out of the 21 blocks their joint venture had.The joint venture is currently focused on reviving the flagging eastern offshore KG-D6 fields and bringing the Mahanadi basin NEC-25 discoveries to production.Declining to comment on the relinquishment, BP India head Sashi Mukundan said, "We want to focus on quickly increasing production and finding more oil and gas". He said output from the main Dhirubhai-1 and 3 (D1&D3) gas fields in KG-D6 block would increase in 2015 after the joint venture puts up additional gas compression facilities and revives some of the six closed wells.D1&D3 fields have seen output fall from 53-54 million standard cubic meters per day achieved in March 2010 to 21-22 mmscmd currently as one-third of the wells ceased due to high water and sand ingress. Together with 5.5-6 mmscmd of output from MA field in the same area, the KG-D6 is currently 26.5-27 mmsmcd. "We are still hopeful of increasing production from D1&D3 by 2015," he said, adding that satellite fields around the main producing areas would be put on producing beginning 2016. Besides D1&D3 and MA, KG-D6 has 16 more gas discoveries". Mukundan said RIL-BP is working on sequencing the gas discoveries towards raising production.(PTI)
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State-run exploration company Oil and Natural Gas Corp plans to approach Marathon Oil about buying half of its 20 per cent stake in the Athabasca Oil Sands Project in Canada, two sources with knowledge of the matter said. ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas investment arm of ONGC, tried last year to acquire a stake in the Shell-operated 255,000 barrel-a-day mining and synthetic crude processing operation, but the deal did not materialise, the sources said.ONGC will again discuss the issue with Marathon Oil Chairman Clarence P Cazlot, who is scheduled to attend the Petrotech energy conference in Delhi on 15-16 October, said the sources, who were not authorised to speak to media. The New Delhi government has told state firms to secure energy assets overseas as the world's No 4 oil importer looks for supplies to power its $2 trillion economy. ONGC Videsh Managing Director D.K. Sarraf declined to comment.Shell owns 60 per cent of the Athabasca project, which includes the Muskeg River and Jackpine mines, according to Shell Canada's website. Marathon and Chevron each own 20 per cent. The Muskeg River mine's current production capacity is 155,000 barrels per day (bpd), while the Jackpine mine has a capacity of 100,000 barrels per day, it said. Last month, sources said a trio of state-run Indian oil companies, including ONGC, bid $5 billion for stakes in Canadian oil sands holdings owned by ConocoPhillips. (Reuters)
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