Hon’ble Prime Minister, N Modi has made pronouncements ad infinitum that subsidies will be rationalized to take these away from the rich/better-off and given to the poor besides plugging leakages. While, on the latter, the government has made significant progress, in regard to former, there is little action on the ground. Even in LPG [liquefied petroleum gas] where it has performed an extraordinary feat of virtually eliminating leakages and saving about Rs 15,000 crores annually under PAHAL [Pratyaksha Hastaantarit Laabh] for direct benefit transfer [DBT] of subsidy [under it, a record 30 million bogus/fictitious users were excluded from the list of beneficiaries], it has done little to meaningfully address the overwhelming bias towards the rich, much less eliminating it. According...
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Category: Pricing Policies & Subsidies
Energy security at stake
THE GAS FIASCO In its report submitted in November, 2015, De-Golyer and MacNaughthon (D&M) – a consultant appointed by the Centre following the dispute between the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and the Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) over alleged migration of gas from former’s oil field discoveries in KG basin to latter’s fields in the same basin off Andhra coast – estimated that 0.4 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas had migrated from ONGC’s ‘idle fields’ to RIL. Following this, the government set up a committee under Justice A P Shah in December, 2015 to examine the matter and recommend measures to be taken against RIL for “the unjust benefit” it received from the migration of gas taking in...
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Gas fiasco – India’s energy security compromised
In its report submitted in November, 2015, De-Golyer and MacNaughthon [D&M] – a consultant appointed by Union government [following dispute between Oil and Natural Gas Corporation’s [ONGC] and Reliance Industries Limited [RIL] over alleged migration of gas from former’s G4PML and D1/E1 discoveries in KG-DWN-98/2 to latter’s D1 and D3 fields in KG-DWN-98/3 off Andhra coast [better known as KG-D6]] – estimated that 0.4 trillion cubic feet [tcf] of gas had migrated from ONGC ‘idle fields’ to RIL. Following this, the government set up a committee under justice A P Shah in December, 2015 to examine the matter and recommend measures to be taken against RIL for “the unjust benefit” it received from the migration of gas taking in to...
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ONGC/OIL ‘unshackled’ – government must stay on course
For Oil and Natural Gas Corporation [ONGC] and Oil India Ltd [OIL] – central public sector undertakings [PSUs] in the business of oil and gas exploration and production, the year 2016-17 brings unprecedented cheer. The ministry of petroleum and natural gas [MPNG] has proposed that the government won’t be asking them to share the burden of subsidies on LPG and kerosene. To put things in perspective, a bit of background is in order. During 2004-2014, under directions from then government, ONGC and OIL offered discount on supply of crude to downstream oil PSUs viz., Indian Oil Corporation Limited [IOCL], Hindustan Petroleum Corporation [HPCL] and Bharat Petroleum Corporation [BPCL] to cover a portion of under-recoveries that latter incurred on sale of...
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Stop routing oil subsidy via PSUs
A request submitted by Reliance Industries Limited [RIL] to the government allowing it to deal in marketing and distribution of ‘subsidized’ LPG [liquefied petroleum gas] draws attention to a very crucial aspect of reforms that holds the key to supplying oil products at low cost on sustainable basis. This relates to breaking the monopoly of public sector undertakings [PSUs] in the downstream oil sector by letting players from private sector in. At present, infrastructure, storage, handling [and other logistics], marketing and distribution of petrol, diesel, LPG, kerosene etc is dominated by oil PSUs viz., Indian Oil Corporation Limited [IOCL], Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited [BPCL] and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited [HPCL]. 2 fundamental factors have contributed to their predominance. First, relates...
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ONGC-GSPC tying knot – good for India’s energy security
There are reports of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation [ONGC] – a central public sector undertaking in the upstream oil & gas sector – picking up a majority stake in gas assets of Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation [GSPC] – an undertaking of Gujarat government – in Krishna-Godavari [KG] basin near coast of Andhra Pradesh. GSPC was awarded the high profile KG-OSN-2001/3 field in the second round of the new exploration and licensing policy [NELP]. Critics are branding this as an attempt by Modi – government at the centre [it was Narendra Modi who as then, chief minister, Gujarat in 2005 had announced discovery in this area with in-place reserves of over 20 trillion cubic ft] to bail out GSPC which...
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WHY THIS PRICE RISE IN NATURAL GAS?
A return to global market-based pricing of gas will hurt fertilisers and power. The Government must, therefore, reconsider its decision to raise the price of natural gas In October 2014, the Modi Government had issued guidelines to fix the price of all domestic gas based on weighted average of gas prices prevailing in four international locations. This led to consternation among producers who say that, at existing administered price ($3.82 per million British thermal unit from October 1, 2015, which will fall to $3.15 in April), production from difficult fields won’t be viable. The Government then promised to consider a ‘premium’ price for deep water blocs, ultra-deep water blocs, which present challenging geological environment. In May 2015, the Union Ministry...
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Gas pricing – has Modi succumbed to pressure tactics?
On March 10, 2016, the cabinet committee on economic affairs [CCEA] approved a policy to incentivize gas production from deep water, ultra-deep water and high-pressure-high-temperature areas. For such areas, which are yet to commence commercial production as on January 1, 2016 and for all future discoveries in such areas, the producers will be allowed marketing freedom including pricing freedom. This would be subject to a ceiling price based landed price of alternative fuels. The ceiling price will be determined as the lowest of the (i) landed price of imported fuel oil [FO]; (ii) landed price of imported LNG [liquefied natural gas] and (iii) weighted average imported landed price of substitute fuels viz., coal, FO and naphtha with weights of 30%,...
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Why a price stimulus for gas?
A return to global markets-based pricing will hurt the fertiliser and power sectors In his Budget speech, finance minister Arun Jaitley lamented the situation of “rising demand, near-stagnation in production and consequent rapid increase in import” in the case of gas. He argued that there was need to incentivise gas production from deep water, ultra-deep water and high-pressure-high-temperature areas. “A proposal is under consideration for new discoveries and areas which are yet to commence production, first to provide calibrated marketing freedom; and second, to do so at a pre-determined ceiling price to be discovered on the principle of landed price of alternative fuels”. Finance ministry U-turn The concern expressed in the speech is not new. The government was mindful of...
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Do gas producers need Jaitely’s stimulus?
In his budget speech for 2016-17, finance minister, Arun Jaitely lamented the situation of “rising demand, near-stagnation in production and consequent rapid increase in import” and argued that there was need to incentivize gas production from deep water, ultra-deep water and high-pressure-high-temperature areas. “A proposal is under consideration for new discoveries and areas which are yet to commence production, first to provide calibrated marketing freedom; and second, to do so at a pre-determined ceiling price to be discovered on the principle of landed price of alternative fuels”. The concern expressed in the speech is not new. The government was mindful of this in October, 2014 when it notified guidelines to fix price of all domestic gas based on weighted average...
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