Page 4 - AsianOil Week 27

AsianOil SOUTH ASIA AsianOil
Bangladesh defends gas price hike
POLICY
BANGLADESHI Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has defended the government’s decision to implement a natural gas price hike on July 1, saying the move was necessary to support eco- nomic growth.
Hasina, who was speaking to reporters on July 8 following a ve-day visit to China, said state-run Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Com- mission (BERC) had raised prices in order to help the country meet its growth target of 8.2% for nancial year 2019-20.
e BERC upped average prices by 32.8% BDT7.38 ($0.087) per cubic metre to BDT9.80 ($0.116) per cm at the start of the month.
Hasina pointed to the heavy subsidy burden for LNG imports, which cost BDT62.12 ($0.736) per cm. She said that subsidies a er the price hike would cost the state more than BDT10bn ($118.4mn).
“If you really want Bangladesh to grow, you’ll have to accept the [new] gas price,” the prime minister said. She added: “Either we should refrain from increasing economic growth by
reducing LNG imports or accept the price hike in the interest of economic development.”
Dismissing arguments that India had lowered its gas prices this year, Hasina said Bangladesh still paid less, with Indian households paying up to BDT37 ($0.438) per cm.
Hasina also blamed past energy policies, say- ing that had the government embraced in 2004- 2005 India’s plan to import gas from Myanmar via a pipeline through Bangladesh, then her country could have tapped some of the supply and might have been able to avoid its growing reliance on LNG imports.
Bangladesh reportedly received interest from a dozen companies to build the country’s rst onshore LNG terminal in June. e companies included Mitsui, Korea Gas (KOGAS), Summit Group, Petronet LNG and an unnamed French company.
A committee will evaluate the proposals before creating a shortlist and it could take more than a year for a contract to be awarded, which will be on a 20-year build-own-operate (BOO) basis.™
India has no plans to merge state majors, says minister
POLICY
Indian Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan
INDIAN Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan has said his ministry is not considering further mergers of the country’s national state-run oil and gas majors.
While state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC) acquired the government’s 51.11% stake in Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) in January 2018 for INR369bn ($5.38bn), Pradhan said in a written statement to the Lok Sabha on July 8 that no other deals were on the table.
“Post-acquisition by ONGC, HPCL will con- tinue to be a central government public enter- prise, having become a subsidiary of ONGC. It will maintain its cultural uniqueness and brand identity,” he said.
He added that his ministry was considering the sale of gas utility GAIL (India)’s marketing business, although the company would retain control of its transportation assets.
Indian Oil Corp. (IOC) and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) have both expressed an interest in acquiring the government’s 54.89% stake in GAIL.
Pradhan’s statement came a er Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) Secretary Atanu Chakraborty told the
Business Standard on July 7 that the government was considering further energy sector mergers this year.
Chakraborty said: “Integration as a strategy will always continue for state-owned companies because we want them to bene t from econo- mies of scale. We are looking at energy, and oil and gas. In some cases, the idea is to improve the value chain, and that could mean demergers. Somewhere if it is not adding to economies of scale, we can look at demerger.”
In unveiling the government’s budget for 2019- 20, Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the strategic disinvestment of select state- owned companies would remain a priority.
She said: “In view of current macro-eco- nomic parameters, the government would not only reinitiate the process of strategic disinvest- ment of Air India, but would o er more [central government-owned enterprises] for strategic participation by the private sector.”
She added: “You can expect the expression of interest [EoI] for [helicopter service provider] Pawan Hans next week. EoIs for Engineering Projects India and Project Development India will also be out very soon. ere are three plants of SAIL Ltd which we plan to sell.”™
P4
w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 27 10•July•2019