Page 4 - AsianOil week 23

AsianOil SOUTH ASIA AsianOil
India mulls LPG market reforms
POLICY
India’s LPG consumption expanded 6.9% year on year in 2018-19 to 24.9 million tonnes
INDIA is studying new midstream reforms, with the latest target for change being the LPG sector. e government commissioned a panel of experts this week to consider whether private rms should be allowed to sell subsidised vol- umes of the fuel.
The private sector has been lobbying for reforms for several years, complaining that state rms have been able to dominate the market through access to subsidised LPG sales. While private and state rms both sell at market rates, end-users receive a direct payment into their bank accounts a er buying subsidised fuel.
e Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas picked economist Kirit Parikh, former petro- leum secretary G C Chaturvedi, former Indian Oil Corp. (IOC) chairman M A Pathan, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA) director Errol D’Souza and a petroleum ministry joint secretary to join the panel.
e panel, which is expected to submit its report by the end of July, consists of the same members who recently recommended policy reforms regard- ing retail fuel stations. Suggested changes included the elimination of a minimum investment of 20 billion rupees (US$288 million) in the oil sector in order to qualify for a fuel retail licence.
India is the world’s second largest user of LPG, with consumption rising 6.9% year on year in nancial year 2018-19 to 24.9 million tonnes. Imports, meanwhile, climbed 15.9% to 13.2 mil- lion tonnes.
India is promoting the adoption of LPG as a cleaner alternative to coal in rural areas. e gov- ernment’s Ujjwala social welfare programme has
provided about 72 million new LPG connections to households in 714 districts since it launched in 2016. Energy consultancy FGE estimates that the number of Indian households with access to LPG rose to nearly 80% in 2018, up from 56% in 2016.
Wood Mackenzie, meanwhile, has predicted that the growth in LPG usage will reduce the country’s LPG self-su ciency to 42% in 2025 from about 70% in 2013. A research analyst at the consultancy, Aman Verma, has said an addi- tional 5 million tonnes per year of import capac- ity is slated to be built by 2020-21.
Privately owned Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is well placed to capitalise on any favourable recommendations from the gov- ernment-appointed panel, with the company already serving about 1 million LPG custom- ers across several states.™
ONGC, OIL and Vedanta lead bidding in India’s latest auctions
FINANCE & INVESTMENT
ONGC, OIL and Vedanta are leading bidders in India’s latest auctions
India’s state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC), Oil India Ltd (OIL) and pri- vately owned Vedanta are reportedly poised to acquire 30 of the 32 conventional blocks o ered across two upstream bid rounds.
PTI quoted unnamed sources as saying the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons’ (DGH) evaluation of bids showed that ONGC and Vedanta Ltd were both the high- est bidders in nine blocks while OIL led the pack in 12 acreages.
Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) and BP, mean- while, teamed up to outbid ONGC for a single
block in the Bay of Bengal’s Krishna Godavari (KG) Basin.
e winners will be announced once the Cab- inet Committee on Economic A airs (CCEA), led by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has given its approval, the sources added.
e Indian government o ered 14 oil and gas blocks under the second Open Acre- age Licensing Policy (OALP-II) round and another 18 conventional blocks under OALP- III. OALP-III also o ered ve CBM blocks. Both rounds closed on May 15.
RIL and BP’s joint bid was their rst in eight years and was driven by a desire to secure natural gas discoveries they had made in the block prior
P4
w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 23 23•June 13•2019