Articles for Oil and Gas

Videocon Plans $2.5 Bn Investment In Brazil Oil And Gas Projects

Videocon Industries Ltd plans to invest $2.5 billion in oil and gas ventures in Brazil over the next two to three years, the consumer electronics-to-energy group's chief said, as part of its strategy to boost the business. "Brazil oil finding is four times higher than the largest oil field in India ... It's just (the) beginning," billionaire Venugopal Dhoot told Reuters at the sidelines of an industry event. A consortium that includes Videocon and Brazilian state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) earlier this year discovered new light crude oil in the Sergipe basin off Brazil's northeast coast. Videocon, which gets most of its revenue from its consumer durables business, has expanded its oil and gas business in recent years with investments in countries including Australia and Indonesia. In the next three years, Videocon, which also has interests in telecoms and power, will be known as an oil and gas firm, Dhoot told India's Mint newspaper last month. (Reuters)

BP Reaches $18.7 Bn Settlement Over Gulf Of Mexico Disaster

BP Plc will pay up to $18.7 billion in penalties to the U.S. government and five states to resolve nearly all claims from its deadly Gulf of Mexico oil spill five years ago in the largest corporate settlement in U.S. history. The agreement adds to the $43.8 billion that BP had previously set aside for criminal and civil penalties and cleanup costs. The company said its total pre-tax charge for the spill now stands at $53.8 billion. BP shares jumped more than 5 percent in New York trading as investors said the British company, often mentioned as a potential acquisition target, could now turn the page on one of the darkest chapters in its century-long history. Under the agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice and the states, BP will pay at least $12.8 billion for Clean Water Act fines and natural resource damages, plus $4.9 billion to states. The payouts will be staggered over as many as 18 years. The preliminary settlement, subject to all sorts of variables, avoids a substantial amount of further litigation. The rig explosion on April 20, 2010, the worst offshore oil disaster in U.S. history, killed 11 workers and spewed millions of barrels of oil onto the shorelines of several states for nearly three months. The agreement, which still needs to be approved by courts, covers Clean Water Act fines and natural resources damages, along with claims by Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas as well as 400 local government entities. "This is a realistic outcome which provides clarity and certainty for all parties," BP Chief Executive Officer Bob Dudley said in a statement. "For BP, this agreement will resolve the largest liabilities remaining from the tragic accident." The size of the settlement was slightly more than the $17.6 billion that investors had initially feared BP would be fined for gross negligence under the Clean Water Act alone. U.S. District Court Judge Carl Barbier, who has overseen the case, was expected to rule on that issue later this year. Even then, BP would have faced years of lawsuits to address claims by states and by the federal government under a natural resource damage assessment. The settlement announced Thursday closes off those remaining liabilities. "This agreement will not only restore the damage inflicted on our coastal resources by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, it will also allow Louisiana to continue aggressively fighting coastal erosion," said Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, the hardest hit state. It was not immediately clear how BP will fund the settlement. BP has shed billions in assets to pay for the spill, eroding about one-fifth of the earnings base it had before 2010. BP's smaller size among the bigger oil majors has made it vulnerable to potential takeovers, especially with the sharp drop in oil prices. "Companies have been slightly hesitant to make a bid while this has been hanging over it, so I think it does clear the way for a potential bid," said Joe Rundle, head of trading at U.K.-based ETX Capital. BP said the government and the states could jointly demand an acceleration of payments if the company were acquired. Previous settlements also included an uncapped fund originally set at $7.8 billion to compensate individuals claiming economic harm from the spill. BP also settled with Transocean Ltd, which owned the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, and Halliburton Co, which worked on the Macondo well. "Now Gulf Coast restoration can begin in earnest. It's time to heal the wounds that BP tore in Gulf Coast ecosystems and communities," said David Yarnold, CEO of the National Audubon Society. (Reuters)

PAHAL Reduces Subsidised Domestic LPG Sales by 25%, Says Arvind Subramanian

PAHAL has succeeded in eliminating ghost beneficiaries of LPG subsidies and helping government to save Rs 12,700 crore, says Arshad KhanChief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian said on Thursday (2 July) that since the introduction of the new direct benefit transfer (DBT) scheme for LPG (PAHAL), sale of subsidised domestic LPG across the nation has fallen by close to 25 per cent. He said, “on an average, the direct benefit transfer (DBT) for LPG has lowered the sale of subsidised domestic sales by around 25 per cent, mainly due to fall in international fuel price and institutional improvement in schemes like Jan Dhan Yojna, Adhaar Card etc.” Talking about the fiscal impact of PAHAL, he said the scheme have been successful in eliminating ghost beneficiaries and helped government to save Rs 12,700 crore. “A major finding of our study reported that DBT led only 6 per cent increase in commercial sales but there was a monolithic increase of 132 per cent in the sale of non- subsidised commercial gas reason mainly because of black market", said the economist on July 2 while speaking at the UNDP Conference hall in Delhi. He said the study findings will be useful for the government to improve the current PDS under the present government’s ambitious JAM (Jan Dhan+Adhaar+ Mobile) vision. Citing JAM vision as game changer he said, “JAM will not only strengthen the state, it will increase economic effectiveness to empower people. Only the government should be cautious while implement the findings of the DBT study on other commodities.”  About the challenges to realise the JAM vision, he classifies the challenges into two categories, first being investment in IT infra to identify the target beneficiaries and the second being to implement schemes on Jan Dhan Yojna platform.     The PAHAL scheme covers more than 9.75 crore LPG consumers is one of the world’s largest cash transfer programme. Under the scheme, LPG cylinders are sold at existing market prices and the consumers receive the subsidy directly into their bank accounts either through an Adhaar or bank account linkage.  

Oil Near 3-week Low As Greece Enters Second Day Of Bank Shutdown

Oil futures hovered below three-week lows on Tuesday (30 June) after Greeks took to the streets to protest against austerity following a bank shutdown, keeping investors away from riskier assets and putting Brent crude on course for a second month of declines.Brent crude futures were down 16 cents at $61.85 a barrel at 0200 GMT, after falling to $62.01 on Monday, their weakest finish since 5 June. The contract is heading for its second straight monthly decline.US crude dropped 20 cents to $58.13, having closed down $1.30 at $58.33 a barrel, its lowest settlement since June 8. It is set for its first monthly decline in three."Greece is still the word," said Ben Le Brun, market analyst at OptionsXpress in Sydney. "That story doesn't look like stopping anytime soon."Tens of thousands of Greeks hit the streets on Monday after waking up to shuttered banks, closed cash machines and a climate of rumours and conspiracy theories following the breakdown in talks between Athens and its creditors.Any resolution to the crisis is unlikely before a referendum on Greece's bailout is held on Sunday, after Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras announced the vote, wrong-footing European leaders and policy makers.Investors are also looking at the US government's June payrolls report on Thursday and talks on Iran's disputed nuclear programme going on in Vienna, Le Brun said.The former may reinforce ideas that the US Federal Reserve might raise interest rates as early as September, the first such hike in about 10 years.The Vienna talks would continue past Tuesday's deadline for a comprehensive agreement intended to open the door to ending sanctions in exchange for limits on Iran's most sensitive nuclear activities for at least a decade, a senior U.S. official said on Tuesday.(Reuters)

Reliance Industries Plans To Shut CDU At Jamnagar Refinery In July

Reliance Industries plans to shut a crude distillation unit (CDU) for a 10-day planned maintenance in the first half of July, it said in a statement on Monday (29 June), halving crude processing at its 580,000 barrels per day (bpd) refinery during the shutdown duration. The export-focussed refinery at the Jamnagar complex in western Gujarat state has two crude distillation units of equal size. "The planned maintenance turnaround at the refinery is not expected to have any impact on commercial commitments," it said. Reliance, owner of the world's biggest refining complex, has two mega-sized refineries in India. The older 660,000-bpd refinery at the complex also has two crude units and mainly caters to domestic demand. Other units at the Jamnagar refinery complex are planned to operate at normal throughput, it said.(Reuters)

Saudi Arabia No Longer Top Crude Supplier To India

Saudi Arabia lost its spot last month as India's top oil supplier to Nigeria for the first time in at least four years, according to ship tracking data compiled by Reuters, as the world's top crude exporter struggles to maintain market share in Asia. The OPEC kingpin also fell behind Russia and Angola as the biggest crude supplier to China last month, official data showed this week. The Middle East country's failure to maintain its position in some markets comes despite it leading a strategy by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to keep output high to drive out competitors. In India, refiners have been switching out of long-term contracts with Middle East suppliers in favour of spot purchases, often African oil. A glut of African cargoes has emerged as the U.S. shale boom cuts American demand and accelerated as OPEC keeps output high. The share of African oil, mainly from Nigeria and Angola, jumped to 26 percent of India's total imports in May, up from around 15.5 percent in April and the highest in more than four years, according to tracking data on tanker arrivals. At the same time, the Middle East share fell to 54 percent in May from 61 percent, with Saudi Arabia supplying some 732,400 barrels per day (bpd) compared with Nigeria's 745,200 bpd. The shift comes as the gap between the international benchmark Brent and the Middle East price marker narrows. The premium for Nigerian crude over Brent has plummeted in recent months, making it more attractive. "This gives advantage to the complex refiners like Reliance to buy superior grades of oil like those from Nigeria at discounted rates," said Ehsan Ul Haq, senior consultant at UK-based consultant KBC Energy Economics. Reliance Industries got about a quarter of its oil in May from Africa, the highest in at least three years. Indian Oil Corp aims to get 70 percent of its oil needs through term volumes compared to 80 percent last year, including a deal with Kuwait halved to 100,000 bpd. Another refiner, Bharat Petroleum Corp, plans to cut its dependence on term contracts to 75 percent this fiscal year from 82 percent a year ago, according to a source. Head of refinery operations at Hindustan Petroleum Corp, B. K. Namdeo, said purchases of West African oil make sense when Brent's premium over the Middle East price marker, known as Dubai swaps, is less than $2 per barrel. The spread has mostly hovered below that since oil prices crashed in the second half of last year and hit its lowest in two months this week at $1.32. KBC Energy's Haq estimates West African oil's share to India could average as much as 25 percent this year. (Reuters)

Carlyle Group To Invest $500 Million In Magna Energy

Carlyle Group has committed to invest up to $500 million in Magna Energy Ltd, an India-focused upstream oil and gas company, the global private equity firm said in a statement on Monday. Led by Mike Watts and Jann Brown who have a combined 60 years of oil industry experience, Magna Energy is seeking to become a full-cycle oil and gas company through acquisitions and securing local licences in the Indian sub-continent. It will have a primary focus on development and production. The buyout shop is making the investment through its unit Carlyle International Energy Partners, a fund that focuses on oil and gas exploration and production. (Reuters)

"Petrol from Plastic" - Vinny Gupta President & CEO, InNow LLC talks to BW|Businessworld