Page 4 - AsianOil Week 43 2020

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India’s energy companies

adapt to “new normal”

PROJECTS & INDIA’S oil and gas companies are preparing for will also be centralised and will be optimally dis-
COMPANIES a prolonged period of depressed energy prices, tributed as and where required.”
with one business leader suggesting the sector But while the upstream is looking for solu-
needs to prepare for oil never returning to $100 tions to the low oil and gas price puzzle, mid-
per barrel. stream natural gas player GAIL (India) sees an
Oil and Natural Gas Corp.’s (ONGC) chair- opportunity to expand the country’s gas con-
man and managing director, Shashi Shanker, sumption. Chairmaniand managing director
told the India Energy Forum this week that Manoj Jain told the conference that interna-
developers needed to look to technological tional gas prices were already in retreat before
advancements to improve their bottom line the COVID-19 struck, with lower prices open-
rather than count on a rebound in prices. ing the door to greater imports.
“This is the new normal. We may not see pre- He said: “We are the largest buyer of US liq-
2014 levels of crude oil at $100 per barrel,” Busi- uefied natural gas [LNG] in India and the price
ness Standard quoted the executive as saying on outlook seems to be on a downward trend.”
October 27. He added: “Year 2020 has not been Jain said the country would have to lean heav-
a good year for oil companies. It started with a ily on the import market to help meet the gov-
price war, prices touched all-time lows and then ernment’s 2030 target of expanding gas’ share of
the pandemic struck. This has put oil companies the energy mix to 15%.
through the wringer.” In terms of the contracts that Indian buyers
Shanker suggested that companies needed to were interested in signing with international
collaborate in order to survive and grow in the suppliers, however, the executive noted that
low oil price environment. He said: “Business there had been a major shift in preference for
partnerships have become a necessity not just spot, short- and medium-term supply deals. He
for companies, but also for service providers.” noted that two thirds of the country’s supply con-
This sentiment was echoed by privately tracts were long-term.™
owned developer Vedanta, with company
CEO Sunil Duggal saying that the coronavirus
(COVID-19) pandemic had driven interest in
collaborative strategies. He added: “We have
decided to have shared service centres. We have
the resources in terms of different rigs, which

PPL approves final

dividend following results

PERFORMANCE STATE-OWNED Pakistan Petroleum Ltd (PPL) Khan said the company’s production was sta-
has approved a final cash dividend equivalent ble at around 900mn cubic feet (25.49mn cubic
to 10% of ordinary and convertible preference metres) per day of gas equivalent, despite lower
shares after finalising its results for financial year offtake from its Kandhkot gas field as well as nat-
2019-2020. ural declines at mature fields.
Commenting on PPL’s progress at the com- Khan said that despite the pandemic the com-
pany’s annual general meeting (AGM) on pany had managed to drill 14 development wells
October 26, managing director and CEO Moin and bring the Fazal and Dhok Sultan blocks on
Raza Khan said the company had managed to stream ahead of schedule. The executive added
ensure stable energy supply despite coronavirus that the Unarpur and Bitro blocks, in which it
(COVID-19) related disruptions. holds non-operated interests, had also been
The company posted a net profit of brought on stream early.
PKR49.42bn ($310.95mn) for the 12-month Khan said his company was working to
period, down from PKR59.46bn ($369.78bn) in bring the Benari discovery at the Shah Ban-
the year ending June 30, 2019. dar block online, and commission the second

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