Oil & Natural Gas: News & Discussion

svinayak · Post by **svinayak** » 23 Sep 2010 11:15

What is the total estimate, value

shyam · Post by **shyam** » 23 Sep 2010 11:18

Is De Beers connected to this?

Aditya_V · Post by **Aditya_V** » 23 Sep 2010 13:51

More importantly are Maoists connected with this? We know from Sierra leaone that Diamond traders were heavily involded int hese conflicts.

Ameet · Post by **Ameet** » 23 Sep 2010 22:46

It is difficult to estimate the value without more information - pricing depends sizes, colour, clarity etc. Per the article, the prices seem to have rebounded over the last couple of years.

thayilv · Post by **thayilv** » 24 Sep 2010 02:50

Rio Tinto Group and DeBeers have partnered to prospect in other states as well. GOI should keep an eye on this area. The maoists might try to setup illegal mining operations to fund their activities.

Rishirishi · Post by **Rishirishi** » 24 Sep 2010 04:15

Acharya wrote:What is the total estimate, value

They are talking about 27 million carats. Perhaps arround 300 dollars per carat can be a yardstick. But it all depends on quality and size of diamonds.

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 24 Sep 2010 09:08

Guys, take the diamond discussion to the 'Mining & Processing' thread.

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 24 Sep 2010 09:13

India should engage in aggressive oil diplomacy - Mani Shankar Ier

Today we have a situation where we are more energy insecure today than we were 10 years ago. We have a confirmed discovery of gas in [Krishna-Godavari] KG basin D-6 by Reliance Industries but that is from over seven years back. Since then, not even the private sector has discovered any new find. If our own exploration is going to stagger in both oil and gas and if we do not put in enormous resources that are required in research and development to deal with the peculiar geographical problems found only in India, then the future seems insecure.

R and D is simply not taking place. No determined effort is being made for knowledge networking around the world. We are not really looking for our own oil and gas. We are still evolving a policy for shale gas when China has made huge strides in this field. The oil majors of Asia have converted the Asian premium into Asian discount. No effort is being made to bring Asian oil producers and consumers together. There is very active energy diplomacy called for to secure the full advantage of the Asian discount. Energy security has to be one of the focal points of our diplomacy at least till the mid-fifties of this century.

Instead of focusing on West Asia and the extended South Asia, which is a repository of hydrocarbons, we are keen on crossing “two oceans” to secure our energy needs. The government's present integrated policies would not be able to secure energy for India in the 21st Century. The ground reality is that thorium- based energy would not be useful till the middle of the century. There is a need to competitively access oil and gas instead of finding ourselves stranded in a sellers' market.

Our failure has been to recognise that though we ourselves have a hydrocarbon deficiency, our immediate and proximate neighbourhood is simply soaked in hydrocarbons. The largest availability of natural gas in the world is in Qatar.

We are geographically fortunate in being able to potentially access by pipeline the gas resources of not only Turkmenistan and Afghanistan but also Uzbekistan, Russia and other Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries. To the East of us, gas is available in Myanmar, which it supplies to Thailand. We have made no arrangement to pipe this gas through a network of pipelines and bring it to India.

No progress has been made in talks to arrive at a deal with South Korea to supply gas from Sakhalin where we have a commercial interest on the basis of a switch deal to get gas into India from Sumatra.

Australia is emerging as a major supplier of gas; we have done nothing to secure gas assets there. Sitting as a terribly gas deficient nation, sitting in the centre of what would be a multiple sources of natural gas supply and to do nothing to access it shows the absence of recognition of importance of energy diplomacy.

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 24 Sep 2010 10:06

Prem wrote:We should think of something on the line that what if we dont need to import gas from ME India dont need to rush into making such long term commitment. Let PRC not be a factor in this.

Oh. . . India has not rushed into anything. We are talking of Oman pipeline for more than two decades now.

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 24 Sep 2010 10:24

Theo_Fidel wrote: This sort of quaking at the knees in front of Panda, which is often expressed on this board, is unseemly.

The big problem with the middle east gas is that they want to sell it to us at European $10 per MBTU vs the local supply at $2.5-$4 per MBTU.

I do not know how you came to the conclusion of quaking at the knees, but let that be.

The gas prices have been fluctuating and LNG price will always be higher because of the extra efforts needed at liquefaction. The local KG does not include liquefaction costs. In India, we have Administered Pricing Mechanism (APM) where the Government decides the prices and yet the gas prices were more than doubled six months back to $4.2 per mmBTU. RIL is asking for increasing gas price to $5.2. The $4.2 by APM is linked to a crude price of $ 60 bbl and RIL says crude prices have gone up. I do not know which ME country demanded $10.00 and when. Again, spot prices will be considerably costlier than long-term contractual prices. At long distances, pipelines become cheaper. The Oman-India pipeline was not dropped 15 years back because of price reasons.

Theo_Fidel · Post by **Theo_Fidel** » 24 Sep 2010 11:32

SSridhar wrote:The gas prices have been fluctuating and LNG price will always be higher because of the extra efforts needed at liquefaction. The local KG does not include liquefaction costs. In India, we have Administered Pricing Mechanism (APM) where the Government decides the prices and yet the gas prices were more than doubled six months back to $4.2 per mmBTU. RIL is asking for increasing gas price to $5.2. The $4.2 by APM is linked to a crude price of $ 60 bbl and RIL says crude prices have gone up. I do not know which ME country demanded $10.00 and when. Again, spot prices will be considerably costlier than long-term contractual prices. At long distances, pipelines become cheaper. The Oman-India pipeline was not dropped 15 years back because of price reasons.

$10 was the the price Iran wanted for its gas supply, that too pegged to oil prices. This was not LNG. LNG is more expensive still. Upto $12 per mbtu.
Note that LNG cost escalates after delivery as it is burned to re-gassify the liquid.

$10 is also the price Qatar wants for its gas.

By its nature pipeline gas has to be on long term contracts. LNG can be bought on the spot market.

As far as M.S. Iyer he lost his job partly because he went to Iran and agreed to pay astronomical prices for the gas. Also he agreed to send it through Pak with no guarantees.
He should not be listened to. He has ulterior motives.

Over the past 2 years every couple of months a new 2-3 TCF find has been announced. How can he possibly say the last discovery was 7 years ago with a straight face. Very Mendacious.

I repeat we have plenty of gas at home.

Built the Oman pipeline a remunerative cost.

Nihat · Post by **Nihat** » 24 Sep 2010 12:10

Big role, big profit for states in shale gas policy

The government plans to invite bids for shale gas exploration by 2011-12, he said. India has huge shale deposits in Assam, Gujarat, Rajasthan, the Gangetic plain, the Cambay basin and the Gondwana basin.

This comes at a time when the first well for producing shale gas has been drilled by the national oil company ONGC. “The first (shale gas) well was drilled at Ichapur near Durgapur in Damodar valley on Tuesday,” ONGC chairman & managing director RS Sharma said.

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 24 Sep 2010 18:18

Theo_Fidel wrote:$10 was the the price Iran wanted for its gas supply, that too pegged to oil prices. . . .$10 is also the price Qatar wants for its gas.

Theo, the Oman-India pipeline, as originally conceived, was for collecting gas from various upstream locations within Oman, for onward transmission to India. This infrastructure first started to be discussed in March 1994. With substantial discoveries in Central Oman at that time, the project was considered as beneficial to an India that was beginning to emerge, especially as Oman was traditionally a friendly country. Bathymetric surveys, deep-water coring, corridor survey, current measurements were all completed by March 1995. Long term supply contracts were supposed to have been completed by end-1995. The completion time of the project was expected to be 5 years. It was estimated that by c. 2001, the shortfall in natural gas supply in India was estimated to be 2 BCFD (or ~ 60 MMSMD) Iran was not at all in the picture when this project started. My lament was with respect to this project. We were slow in decision-making and were later distracted by the IPI 'Peace Pipeline' that was never in the reckoning, IMVHO, because of security concerns. The price etc. came next and in any case, Iran was not connected with the originally conceived India-Oman pipeline. My lament therefore was that even when we had huge deficits in gas requirements (with no significant discoveries and with bleak prospects in c. 1995), we were slow in decision-making.

I repeat we have plenty of gas at home.

According to the applications pending for gas allocation with the Min. of Petroleum, the requirement is 600 MMSCMD (within the next 5 or 6 years) for proposed power plants alone while total availability from all production platforms plus imported LNG will be about 275 mmscmd by c. 2014. The original India 2020 Vision document estimated a natural gas demand of ~200 mmscmd by c. 2020.

Theo_Fidel · Post by **Theo_Fidel** » 24 Sep 2010 22:23

SSridhar wrote:My lament therefore was that even when we had huge deficits in gas requirements (with no significant discoveries and with bleak prospects in c. 1995), we were slow in decision-making.

Agreed that Oman has gas they wanted to send to India at attractive prices.

But back then and even now this is not enough to pay for the pipeline. Right now it is a $10 Billion project.

Lets do some math. The consensus was that to be remunerative roughly 6-8 BCF per day needs to be sent in.
This would require roughly 3-4 pipelines in 3500 meters of water. ~10,000 feet.
Oman has reserves of 30 TCF inferred. Yes much less than us even.
At 6 BCF/day which works out to 2 TCF per year and their gas would be 50% depleted in 7 years.
1 TCF roughly costs $4 Billion at $4 per mbtu.
Everyone agreed this was uneconomic, esp. for a $10 Billion pipeline.

This is also why the Pak line will never be built without us or China on board.

This is why everyone agreed that the only way to make this project work was to bring in Qatar and Iran.
Qatar has invested heavily in LNG which the Japanese are willing to pay $25 per mbtu to get.
Understandably they don't want to sell at less to us.

Also keep in mind that the technology was very primitive back then. Esp. WRT to maintenance
in case of rupture. ROV's and deep heavy equipment just did not exist. This was another deal breaker.

But it does now. We will no longer be the first.
The Crazy Horse gulf of Mexico platform has just finished hooking up its 450 miles of Okeanos
pipeline in 8000 feet of water. They have gone through a brutal 7 year learning cycle. This equipment
including ships, support vessels and ROV's is now available cheap. Reliance tapped into this base
to complete its 50 km of pipeline in 8000 feet of water.

Hence the new energy on completing this line.

As far as the demand projection that 200 mmscmd number was based on $3 per mbtu price.
At $10 it pretty much shrivels to nothing.

Keep in mind we are short of gas only because our own reserves are not being produced yet.
All because of those dinosaur PSU's.

Vipul · Post by **Vipul** » 07 Oct 2010 01:23

RIL's K-G gas play may get bigger with D4 block.

At 100 tcf, partner Niko says reserves may be twice D6 block’s.The Krishna-Godavari (K-G) basin may prove to be a much bigger play for Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL). This follows the announcement that its D4 block could hold twice the reserves of the in-production D6 block to the north.

Canada’s Niko Resources, which holds 15 per cent stake in the block with RIL holding the balance, has said prospective gas reserves in D4 could be significantly higher than previously estimated. In a recent presentation to analysts in Canada, Niko Resources CEO Edward S Sampson said, “I feel it’s twice the size of D6. We feel we have got prospectivity potential for up to 100 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of gas. It would change India.”

RIL’s estimated 40 tcf of gas in place at K-G D6 has recoverable reserves of 11.5 tcf, the largest deep-water find in India so far. RIL is the operator of both the D6 and D4 blocks.

The drilling in D4 is expected to start by the end of this financial year, which is when a much better evaluation of the actual prospect for the block can be carried out.

Analysts said reserves are classified as proved, possible and probable. “Considering Sampson has not mentioned any of that, it’s too early to ascertain what he is hinting at,” said one analyst. The possibility of recovering gas from any field depends on the permeability of the reservoir and how porous it is. There is no relationship between the prospectivity and the actual commercial production for a block, he explained.

But industry experts say that at a most optimistic estimate, actual recoverable reserves in a gas field could be as high as 50-70 per cent of the in-place reserves.

Both RIL and Niko officials in India downplayed the development, saying they are yet to begin drilling in the block. According to some analysts, two preliminary wells have been drilled and work on a third has just begun.

But analysts said the development would certainly have a strong impact on RIL and Niko valuations and, thereby, their stocks. “With 100 tcf of in-place reserves, this could approach in size some of the largest natural gas blocks in Qatar or Iran. This is a possible indication, but it’s early days yet. Drilling will only confirm whether it does have that kind of potential,” said Jal Irani, an oil analyst at Macquire.

Officials from the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons, the downstream regulator, could not be contacted for a view on the development. But in a similar case in March, DGH did not certify the contingent resources of Cairn India when it raised estimates of in-place reserves at its Rajasthan field to 4 billion barrels of oil equivalent from 3.7 billion. Director-General of Hydrocarbons S K Srivastava had said, “The DGH does not certify contingent resources.”

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 07 Oct 2010 01:48

Theo, Can ONGC or someone build a Natural Gas fertilizer plant in Oman and get the material for India? Looks like the Pipeline is no winner.

Theo_Fidel · Post by **Theo_Fidel** » 07 Oct 2010 06:40

ramana wrote:Theo, Can ONGC or someone build a Natural Gas fertilizer plant in Oman and get the material for India? Looks like the Pipeline is no winner.

Already being done.

http://www.omifco.com/

The fertilizer plants have already been built in India. So need to feed those as well.
Also natural gas has a million other uses that we need it for.

The Oman pipeline will be built, just that financial aspects don't make sense right now.

For one thing no one wants to ship through Af-Pak. We could easily tranship that gas
for Panda and Japan safely. Maybe even earn a few bucks in the process. Once the line
is in place Qatar, Iran and Saudi will fall into place.

Rishirishi · Post by **Rishirishi** » 17 Oct 2010 03:59

Was with a few of my friends, and discussed Reliance sucess rate in bay of bengal. (it is unnatural high). There is talk about senor ONGC people leaving the company with documents to Reliance. Answers a lot of questions. ONGC has spent billions on exploration, but when the big finds come, it is reliance who makes the discoveries.

Theo_Fidel · Post by **Theo_Fidel** » 17 Oct 2010 09:46

Rishirishi wrote:Was with a few of my friends, and discussed Reliance sucess rate in bay of bengal. (it is unnatural high). There is talk about senor ONGC people leaving the company with documents to Reliance. Answers a lot of questions. ONGC has spent billions on exploration, but when the big finds come, it is reliance who makes the discoveries.

Rishi don't take this personally but this is absolute garbage. Complete sour grapes by ONGC.

If you know anything about the oil business, it has long since ceased to be a drill a hole and hope business. All Reliance did was apply proper top of the line seismic analysis to geology the ONGC and others had thought was worthless. The sad thing is ONGC has this technology but lacks the expertise to interpret it properly. Interpretation is unfortunately 99% of the success rate. ONGC also lacks the guts to say so. It hired Petrobras for instance to help it with this, forgetting that Petrobras itself out sources this expertise. One reason that particular marriage collapsed.

Keep in mind the oil PSU's still hold the lease to 90% of the best juicy parts of KG basin. They don't know what to do with it. They still don't have a proper drill program other than drill a hole and hope. Even once they discover it they don't know how to produce it as Gujarat Gas has demonstrated.

Also Reliance is hardly the worlds best discovery company. There is undoubtedly a lot more gas and oil down there that others could find even in Reliances own blocks.

Previously I have stated quite confidently that there should be at least a 1000-2000 TCF of gas off our East coast. I did not say why geologists think this privately, including my professor. The real reason is that our gas is a special kind of gas. All indications are that it is biogenic gas, not thermogenic gas as much of the worlds including middle east gas is. Biogenic gas is usually methane hydrates that get buried by river sediments and then trapped in reservoirs for extraction. This is a much more widespread phenomena with a high probability process. Thermogenic gas requires a number of different things WRT trapping, subsidence, temp gradient, localized pockets, etc to go right. This is very rare hence the limited gas deposits.

Gas Hydrates exist all along our East coast in one of the worlds great accumulations. Our East coast rivers are very old. 50 million years+. Plenty of time for sedimenting. Ergo there should be plenty of gas along the entire coast.

Now if someone could implode those PSU's and get some proper companies to do some exploration...

Prem · Post by **Prem** » 17 Oct 2010 10:10

ONGC's past record of discoveries speaks for itself. I have a relative who worked for them and got training in Russia and as per him they never even tried to look for new fields after Bombay. GOI did not allocate any money for research because politicians get commission in Oil deals.
WIKI page on KG Basin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krishna_Godavari_Basin

( There is hell of a lot gas there and ONGC was/is aware of it. At least Reliance is bringing this to Indian consumers and we dont have to ship shipload of $ to ME Ghooins )

vic · Post by **vic** » 17 Oct 2010 10:48

Theo then why do we have poor response to Gas/Oil block auctions?

Theo_Fidel · Post by **Theo_Fidel** » 18 Oct 2010 19:24

vic wrote:Theo then why do we have poor response to Gas/Oil block auctions?

One can always trot out the usual mish mash of babudom, weird rules, Oil PSU interference, etc.

But a big one is this. There is only so much of this expertise and equipment in the world.
It is very very expensive. On the order of Rs 2 Crore a day per rig.

In the US and Europe gas is $10 mbtu. The best Indian prices are $4 or so. During the bids the
pricing was in the $2.5 per mbtu range.

Just not profitable enough. Plenty of other places for this equipment.

Even those bidding are looking very long range. 10 year + when the Indian economy can support
$10 mbtu prices. Very few companies think that long range.

Rishirishi · Post by **Rishirishi** » 19 Oct 2010 16:49

Theo_Fidel wrote:
vic wrote:Theo then why do we have poor response to Gas/Oil block auctions?
One can always trot out the usual mish mash of babudom, weird rules, Oil PSU interference, etc.

But a big one is this. There is only so much of this expertise and equipment in the world.
It is very very expensive. On the order of Rs 2 Crore a day per rig.

In the US and Europe gas is $10 mbtu. The best Indian prices are $4 or so. During the bids the
pricing was in the $2.5 per mbtu range.

Just not profitable enough. Plenty of other places for this equipment.

Even those bidding are looking very long range. 10 year + when the Indian economy can support
$10 mbtu prices. Very few companies think that long range.

Wrong. No country allows the company to take all the profits. In the Gulf for example, a company may only get a a dollar or 2 per barrel (even if the price is 140). Likewise with Gas.
I am no fan of ONGC my self, but it is untrue that they have not bothered. They have spent thousands of crore looking for OIL and Gas. Both onshore and offshore. ONGC have acess to the same tech, as the oil community is very small.

Reliance had NO experiance in offshore drilling. An exploration well costs up to 100 million dollars, and may return no find. How did they even dare to enter the business, unless they had some very sound information.

dinakar · Post by **dinakar** » 19 Oct 2010 22:27

Thio, just look the profile of a top level geologist in RIL who discovered D-6, that geologist was from ONGC and he was one of the person responsible for exploration in ONGC earlier... Now he has also applied for the post of CMD...

chetak · Post by **chetak** » 19 Oct 2010 22:41

rshyam wrote:Thio, just look the profile of a top level geologist in RIL who discovered D-6, that geologist was from ONGC and he was one of the person responsible for exploration in ONGC earlier... Now he has also applied for the post of CMD...

Just like lakshmi mittal's top steel guys are all from PSUs.

Just goes to show what the right pay package and management support can do for your motivation.

Dramatic results onlee.

Theo_Fidel · Post by **Theo_Fidel** » 20 Oct 2010 00:38

rshyam wrote:Thio, just look the profile of a top level geologist in RIL who discovered D-6, that geologist was from ONGC and he was one of the person responsible for exploration in ONGC earlier... Now he has also applied for the post of CMD...

The geologists who did the 3D Seismic analysis and created the drill program for D6 were with Niko. They are the true discoverers.
The geologists who did the 3D Seismic analysis and created the drill program for D3 and D9 were with Hardy.

That why I said that Reliance is not much of an exploration company. That ONGC guy is nothing more than a pencil pusher.

Check the link below. This is from Hardy oil.

http://production.investis.com/hardyoil ... _prese.pdf

You can see some info on the 3D maps for D3 on page 15. They are being a bit coy but look at the detailed 3D profile for D9! I can bet you ONGC has nothing like that analysis. Look at the very casual analysis on Page 17. This is one of 1000's such profile that the geologists select from for their drilling program. No way to distinguish one from the other unless you know what you are looking at and can convert it to 3D for proper analysis. This is not cheap and often needs super computer type computation. D9 looks very very tasty to me but what do I know.

Also Hardy oils key employees are listed. Several of them are Indians with mostly foreign oil experience. Look for the name Schlumberger. They are the top 3D analysts in the world.

Now the ONGC/PSU guys are great managers, i.e. pencil pushers. But definitely not the best technical talent in world. There are exceptions.

wig · Post by **wig** » 02 Nov 2010 08:43

Oil price jumps $2 as Saudi Arabian energy minister fuels inflation fears
The Saudi Arabian energy minister pushed up oil futures by $2 per barrel, after implying the powerful nation will not do anything to stop prices rising to $90.
The comments will drive further fears of inflation, as transportation costs of consumer goods tends to rise with the oil price.

Brent crude rose $2.06 to $85.21, as any signs about Saudi Arabia's plans for output can have a huge impact on the volatile oil market.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/fina ... fears.html

Vipul · Post by **Vipul** » 02 Nov 2010 23:56

ONGC plans to invest $10 bn in gas discoveries.

State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation plans to invest over USD 10 billion in bringing to production gas discoveries off the east coast, its Director (Exploration) D K Pande said today.

ONGC is aiming to develop finds in Krishna Godavari basin through four different projects, he said on the sidelines of the Petrotech-2010 oil and gas conference here.

"We are targeting 25-30 million standard cubic meters per day of natural gas production by 2014-15," he said.

The G-1 and G-15 fields will produce 2 mmscmd of natural gas from 2011 while S-1 and Vasistha deep-water project will produce 5 mmscmd.

However, the major push will come from development of finds in and around block KG-DWN-98/2, which sits next to Reliance Industries' giant KG-D6 block.

Pande said the block now has 10 gas discoveries and ONGC plans to tie-up nine of these with six gas finds in neighbouring 1G block to produce 20-25 mmsmcd from 2014-15.

"This development will cost USD 4.5 billion," he said. Another USD 5 billion will be needed to develop the ultra-deepsea UD-1 discovery in the KG-DWN-98/2. This discovery will be developed at a later date.

ONGC is in talks with energy majors BP Plc , Exxon Mobil , BG Group and Eni for a strategic tie-up for developing the KG basin discoveries.

Besides, ONGC plans to produce 10,000-20,000 barrels of oil per day from G-4-6, GS-29-1 and G-4-5 by 2012-13, he said.

The company has commissioned an onshore processing terminal at Odalarevu that will receive hydrocarbons from GS-15 field. The terminal is 90-km south-east of Rajahmundry in Andhra Pradesh.

ONGC has approached the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) for declaring commerciality of nine discoveries in the northern part of the KG-DWN-98/2 block.

The southern exploration area of the block includes the UD-1 deepwater discovery, which is being appraised, Pande said.

The UD-1 discovery was made at a water depth of 2,841 metres and in-place reserves have been estimated at about 82.3 billion cubic meters of gas.

ONGC holds 90 per cent interest in the block and the rest is with Cairn India.

vic · Post by **vic** » 03 Nov 2010 09:41

Reliance Group have never been technology creaters but managers of Govt department. AnilBhai is importing everything for its Power projects from China, for Telecom projects from China, indulging in stock market with Goldman Saches, Mukesh Bhai inspite of massive updeployed profits has no interest in creating any sort of heavy equipment manufacturing base etc. This is the story for most of the big groups of india like Mittals, Ruias, Birlas, Ambanis, DLF, Wipro, Infosys etc There are very few exceptions like Tatas, L&T, Bajaj, Godrej etc. MMS Govt has no interest in assisiting "Indian" high tech manufactering sector.

I live near a whole sale market of Delhi and I can tell you that Indian manufactering is now in China for consumer products, computers, telecom, power, toys, furniture etc.

Varoon Shekhar · Post by **Varoon Shekhar** » 03 Nov 2010 19:10

"that Indian manufacturing is now in China for consumer products, computers, telecom, power, toys, furniture etc."

So Indian companies manufacturing these products have moved their operations to China? Or do they contract the manufacturing to some Chinese interest, and import the components and assemble in India?

vic · Post by **vic** » 03 Nov 2010 19:53

Varoon Shekhar wrote:"that Indian manufacturing is now in China for consumer products, computers, telecom, power, toys, furniture etc."

So Indian companies manufacturing these products have moved their operations to China? Or do they contract the manufacturing to some Chinese interest, and import the components and assemble in India?

I meant to say we are just importing Chinese products

wig · Post by **wig** » 04 Nov 2010 18:33

good news

ONGC now Asia’s top oil firm
Pips China’s CNOOC; RIL, NTPC, GAIL other top ranking cos
ONGC has pipped China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) to become Asia’s top oil and gas exploration and production company, as per Platts Top 250 Global Energy Company Rankings announced in Singapore yesterday.

In the rankings, that rated world’s leading oil and gas, power and coal firms, ONGC climbed to 18th slot from 26th position in 2009 rankings.

Besides, ONGC (Oil and Natural Gas Corporation), Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) and Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) have been ranked as the number 1 companies in Asia in their respective industries.

The Platts 2010 rankings recognise the 2009 financial performance of publicly held energy companies based on a combination of assets, revenues, profits and return on invested capital.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2010/20101104/main5.htm

Prem · Post by **Prem** » 12 Nov 2010 01:20

India signs shale gas MoU with US

NEW DELHI: In line with efforts to expand ties with Washington into areas of unconventional and frontier technologies, India has signed an MoU with the US for cooperation in identifying and tapping gas trapped in layers of sedimentary rocks, commonly known as shale gas.Describing US president Barack Obama's visit as "very successful", oil minister Murli Deora called shale gas as the future mantra of the hydrocarbons industry.
"We are trying to usher in a shale gas era. The MoU will help India identify shale gas resource in the country and frame policy regime for exploitation of the resource," he said. His ministry plans to include shale gas acreages in its auction of exploration blocks in 2011. The US is considered a pioneer in the area and has the only commercially viable market for the fuel.
India is waking up to the prospect of the unconventional energy source, with Mukesh Ambani's RIL recently buying stakes in companies in the US. Even ONGC has initiated a pilot project and started drilling in a Bengal village. But lack of technology and know-how remains a hurdle which the US will help overcome.Petroleum secretary S Sundareshan said the US Geological Survey will carry out studies on shale gas resources and will provide a report. Read more: Expanding ties: India signs shale gas MoU with US

- http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/busi ... z150UJethw

Prem · Post by **Prem** » 12 Nov 2010 01:27

Shale gas: A game changer that India should turn to
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/443 ... india.html
Looking for trees and missing the wood may become applicable in the case of India’s energy scenario.
( This what Sear Theo have been saying here for a while, india;s energy salvation getting closer by the day)

So far India’s relentless efforts during the last 25 years to build pipelines to bring gas from Turkmenistan, Iran, Qatar, Bangladesh and Myanmar have remained pipe dreams. Renewable energy sources like ethanol and bio diesel, wind and solar are high on the national agenda. Thanks to Indo-US nuclear pact, India may succeed in increasing the contribution of nuclear energy.
But a recent phenomenon of shale gas — which has brought about seismic changes in the natural gas scene — has not been given the importance it deserves. Energy economists all over the world have started to admire with awe the great achievement of oil companies in the US in developing shale gas resources on a large scale during the last decade.
As recently as three years back conventional wisdom was that US will have a huge gas deficit and it has to import increasing quantity of LNG. In less than two years, the US supply has changed from one of deficit to surplus. The sudden and unexpected development of shale gas has been a game changer. World renowned energy economist Daniel Yergin, chairman of Cambridge Consulting Group has referred to shale gas development as “the biggest energy innovation of the decade.”
It is not that we in India are not familiar with this development. In an article few months back, columnist Anklesaria Aiyar had urged the government to bring about policy changes to promote shale gas. In India, shale deposits are found across the Gangetic plain, Assam, Rajasthan and many coastal areas, but neither the government nor the corporate sector has carried out any exploration or estimation. Recently, ONGC announced plans to start a pilot project in 2011 when most oil companies in Europe and the US are racing to master the technology of shale gas from those companies who have already succeeded in the US.
Shale gas is natural gas produced from shale formations. Gas shales are organic-rich shale formations. In terms of its chemical makeup, shale gas is typically a dry gas primarily composed of methane. Three factors have contributed to its rapid development of US gas shales: advances in horizontal drilling, advances in hydraulic fracturing, and, perhaps most importantly, rapid increases in natural gas prices in the last several years as a result of significant supply and demand pressures.
The primary differences between modern shale gas development and conventional natural gas development are the extensive uses of horizontal drilling and high-volume hydraulic fracturing. According to a recent DOE report, the use of horizontal drilling has not introduced any new environmental problems.
While unconventional gas sources like gas shales reserves are plentiful, cost to produce is more than the conventional gas production of yesteryears. The shale gas cost has been estimated to be between $6 per mmbtu (Million British Thermal Units) to $9 to 10

Klaus · Post by **Klaus** » 15 Nov 2010 15:27

Question to Theo Fidel ji and other maulaners: In order to keep control and accountability within Indian hands, should the GOI start a consortium of companies (both private and public) which would have exclusive rights to the entire Eastern Rivers/East Coast gas hydrates and deep shale deposits, from exploration and drilling to production, transportation, refining and Point of Final Sale?

These companies would have to start a subsidary presence and this subsidary would be part of the consortium with execs crossing over from other subsidary companies. The parent company would have no say or stake in this cosortium except for a percentage of the profits which filters through. It could be a very transparent and workable system.

Theo_Fidel · Post by **Theo_Fidel** » 16 Nov 2010 00:25

Klaus,

That doesn't sound very workable. You are trying to create yet another dinosaur PSU.
If the rewards are there people will take the enormous financial risks needed to find this gas.

There have been over 30,000 wells dug in the gulf of Mexico. Only a few thousand have paid off.
Our strike rate is unlikely to be much better. We need a 100,000 wells dug off our East coast.

http://www.business-standard.com/india/ ... ar/414808/

Oilex to start gas production from Cambay field next year

"First gas production is planned in less than a year's time from now," Oilex Managing Director Bruce McCarthy said here. Inplace reserves in the Cambay basin block near the town of Khambat (160-km south of Ahmedabad in Gujarat) is 16-21 Trillion cubic feet (Tcf). Of these, 10 per cent or at least 1.6 Tcf are recoverable. Initial gas production could be 5 million standard cubic feet per day, rising up to 50 mmscfd by 2012-13.

The inplace reserves are almost equivalent to what RIL had found in the Krishna-Godavari basin deep sea KG-D6. But KG-D6 fields have a higher recovery factor with almost 12 Tcf of gas likely to be produced over life of the field, while in Oilex's case only 1.5 Tcf can be produced as the reservoir is 'tight' with low permeability.

Prem · Post by **Prem** » 16 Nov 2010 02:41

About Shale gas on 60 Minute
http://fuelfix.com/energywatch/2010/11/ ... 0-minutes/
And

http://www.platts.com/weblog/oilblog/20 ... to_ro.html

the recent Petrotech 2010 oil and gas conference held in New Delhi. Even as experts spoke about the prospect of shale gas exploration in the five basins identified by the India's ONGC -- the Gondwana Basin, Krishna Godavari Basin, Cauvery Basin, Cambay Basin and the Indo-Gangetic Basin -- there were voices of caution from the audience and the speakers themselves.

One thing that many speakers emphasized was that drilling for shale gas needs a lot of land. Unlike in the US, where land is not an issue, it can become almost insurmountable in India with its high density of population. And acquiring land for drilling is not easy. Even where the exploration is underway, in the Damodar Valley where ONGC is working with Schlumberger, it was possible because the land was already available as part of hydropower and coalbed methane projects.

Reliance Industries, the only Indian company to have ventured into shale gas investments, is already looking at India's Cambay Basin where it prospects now for oil and gas. In April, RIL acquired a 40% interest in Atlas Energy's Marcellus position (120,000 net acres) in southwestern Pennsylvania for $1.07 billion. In July, it entered into a $1.35 billion joint venture in the Eagle Ford shale with Pioneer Natural Resources and its partner Newpek, under which it obtained a 45% stake in about 212,000 net acres. In August, it formed a 60:40 JV with Carrizo Oil & Gas in the Marcellus Shale for $392 million.So it is ready to jump into the Indian shale gas scene whenever the Director General of Hydrocarbons offers blocks, which the DGH hopes to do by the end of 2011. Confident of its experience in shale plays, RIL expects to technology to help it overcome all the other problems such as water availability. "Maybe we will build in-house expertise so that no water will be need for fracturing," says RIL geoscientist Sudipto Basu. How that plays out only time will tell.

Klaus · Post by **Klaus** » 22 Nov 2010 19:34

Theo_Fidel wrote:Klaus,

That doesn't sound very workable. You are trying to create yet another dinosaur PSU.
If the rewards are there people will take the enormous financial risks needed to find this gas.

There have been over 30,000 wells dug in the gulf of Mexico. Only a few thousand have paid off.
Our strike rate is unlikely to be much better. We need a 100,000 wells dug off our East coast.

However, allowing the existing system to take control over a virtually untapped and revolutionary form of energy will only create more lethargy instead of enthusiasm. We will have more corruption and scams such as Enron and Union Carbide.

My desire is to have competing systems moderated by Indian control. One with ONGC and the other players in the conventional EPC resources, for the gas hydrates and shale gas deposits an alternative system should be fostered. JMHO onlee.

Theo_Fidel · Post by **Theo_Fidel** » 23 Nov 2010 02:04

Klaus, that is a good thought except conventionally profits from one finance the risky exploration of the other. Get a feel for the numbers from the report below.

In other news, 5 years later, GSPC is thinking of 'maybe' producing its gas.

http://www.business-standard.com/india/ ... ct/415843/

GSPC avails Rs 3,000-crore loan for K-G project

The field, in the Krishna Godavari basin, off the east coast, was discovered in June 2005 and awarded to GSPC under the third round of the New Exploration Licensing Policy. The field represents almost all of its gas reserves and most of its oil reserves, according to the company. “We may, however, be a little delayed in completing the development of the project and commence commercial gas production by our estimated commencement date in June 2012,” the GSPC official added.

The company had invested around Rs 5,922 crore as of September 30, 2009 (including exploratory costs prior to formulation of the Field Development Programme) in the KG block.

“The development costs and our estimated operational costs, as well as our current target of June 2012 for first commercial production from DDW, are subject to risks of raw material and equipment shortages, price increases above those anticipated and risks in inability to procure or design the engineering services required. The field development plan estimates that DDW will cost a total of approximately Rs 8,000 crore ($1,801.04 mn), of which Rs 5,649 crore ($1,270.61 mn) would be required by FY 2013. We expect to commence commercial gas production by then,” GSPC had stated in the draft red herring prospectus filed with Securities and Exchange Board of India this April.

arun · Post by **arun** » 30 Nov 2010 07:23

X Posted.

Excerpt dealing with the IPI pipeline from the cable released by Wikileaks:

Friday, 12 June 2009, 12:11
S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 03 BAKU 000478 ...............................

Projected Problems in Iranian Gas Links
---------------------------------------

¶9. (C) The annual Baku Oil and Gas Show, held June 2-5, brought a variety of energy company executives and pundits to Baku, though no senior officials from Iran. An American interlocutor told Baku Iran Watcher on the side of the show that a [Source removed] had confided to him in a private conversation on June 4 that he viewed near-term implementation of the Iranian-Pakistani gas link project as “very unlikely.” The downbeat comment by the [Source removed] was made despite the recent signing in Istanbul by President Ahmadinejad and President Zardari of an Iranian-Pakistani MOU committing to the gas project. According to this source, [Source removed] indicated that he had several reasons for this opinion, but the only one he elaborated was that “the Pakistanis don’t have the money to pay for either the pipeline, or the gas.”

¶10. (C) Meanwhile, during a panel discussion at the conference on the future prospects of Caspian gas, several commentators noted the difficulty of doing business in “unpredictable, overly bureaucratic” Iran, and the alleged historical “unreliability” of Iranian gas supply contracts previously reached with Turkey and Turkmenistan. For example, panelists recounted that, after long negotiations, Iran has four times failed to sign separate Liquid national Gas contracts at the last minute. Two panelists claimed that Iran has repeatedly diverted gas supplies to meet domestic needs, thereby interrupting its contractual gas exports - and has not paid contractual penalties for these violations.

¶11. (C) A [Source removed] asserted bluntly that Iranian political leaders are totally focused on domestic needs and personal jockeying, and are simply not interested in hearing about the value of optimizing foreign gas exports. The only exception, he claimed, is their interest in the notional prospect of annually exporting ten billion cubic meters (bcms) of gas to Europe. He attributed this interest to a conviction that such a deal will significantly increase Iran’s political leverage in Europe and substantially insulate it from future European pressure - a perception he characterized as revealing, and “typically” unrealistic.
DERSE

Wikileaks