Hi-skore Engineers

Hi-skore Engineers is a professionally managed company in the field of process design, detailed engineering, project management, planning and execution

330, Grohitam Complex, 3rd Floor, Opp. APMC market no. II, Sector 19, Vashi, Navi Mumbai 400 705
Design office : A-9, 501, Bhoomiraj Woods, Plot no. 55, Sector 20, Kharghar, Navi Mumbai 410 210


Friday, December 10, 2010

OPAL natural gas pipeline reaches Czech Republic

Nov 18, 2010
Eric Watkins
OGJ Oil Diplomacy Editor

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 18 -- The Ostsee-Pipeline-Anbindungs-Leitung (OPAL) pipeline, which eventually will extend 470 km to link the Nord Stream Pipeline to Eastern Europe, has been laid across the German-Czech border, according to company officials.

“The closer cross-border integration of national natural gas pipeline systems called for by the European Union has taken a key step forward,” said Bernd Vogel, managing director of OPAL Nel Transport GMBH, a subsidiary of the Wingas Group, which is co-owned by Germany’s Wintershall and Russia's OAO Gazprom.

"By building the Nord Stream Pipeline and its connecting pipeline OPAL, European customers are gaining direct access to the major Russian natural gas reserves in Siberia,” said Vogel, whose firm will perform the tasks of network operator for OPAL.

About 400 km of the pipeline’s overall length have already been laid, and the welding together of the more than 26,000 pipes has also largely been completed.

"This makes us confident of completing the pipeline by the late summer 2011 as planned and bringing it online in October 2011 together with the first Nord Stream Pipeline," said Vogel.

Gazprom projects completion of the first 27.5 billion cu m/year Nord Stream line in 2011, with a parallel line of the same capacity to follow in 2012. The line will pass through Russian, Finnish, Swedish, Danish, and German waters.

Construction of the 1,200-km Nord Stream system, which will extend through the Baltic Sea from Vyborg, Russia, to Greifswald, Germany, began Apr. 9 (OGJ Online, Apr. 9, 2010).

Meanwhile, Wingas Chief Construction Manager Michael Muth outlined the work program for OPAL over the coming months, saying that it “will concentrate on the construction of the gas transfer station in Lubmin and the natural gas compressor station in Baruth, south of Berlin.”

When complete, OPAL will be the largest gas line to be laid in Europe, with an annual transport capacity of 36 billion cu and a diameter of 1.4 m.

In addition to OPAL, Wintershall and Gazprom also are planning construction of the 440-km North European gas pipeline (NEL), which will transport Nord Stream gas from Greifswald on the German coast west to Rehden in Lower Saxony. NEL is scheduled to come on stream in 2011 and has a planned capacity of 20 billion cu m/year.

“It will connect Nord Stream with the European gas network, just as the OPAL natural gas pipeline does to the Czech Republic,” Wingas said. That will facilitate gas transportation from Russia, through Germany, to Belgium, the Netherlands, France, and the UK.

Earlier this week, the European Union described the Nord Stream line part of one of four “big axis” for the diversification of gas supplies in Europe: the Southern Corridor from the Caspian, the Northern Corridor from Norway, the Eastern corridor from Russia, and the Mediterranean Corridor from Africa.

Wingas is owned 50.02% by BASF subsidiary Wintershall and 49.98% by Gazprom. Wingas owns 80% of OPAL and 75% of NEL, with E.On Ruhrgas holding the remaining 20% and 25%, respectively.

Nord Stream's shareholders include Gazprom 51%, E.On Ruhrgas and Wintershall 15.5% each, and Dutch state Gasunie and France's GDF Suez, each with 9%.

IOCL to acquire 49% in NPCIL JV

MUMBAI: Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) may acquire up to 49% stake in its proposed joint venture with Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) as against the 26% holding announced earlier, says a senior NPCIL.

“IOC has communicated to us internally that it will acquire 49% stake in the proposed venture which will own the seventh and eight unit of Rajasthan plant of 700 mw each,” said JK Ghai, director (finance), NPCIL.

State-run IOC had earlier said that it would invest Rs 961 crore for 26% stake for setting up the 1,400 mw nuclear power project with NPCIL.

The project is being set up at a total outlay of Rs 12,000 crore, to be financed in the debt-to-equity ratio of 7:3. The state-run nuclear power producer is also forming joint ventures with other public sector enterprises such as National Aluminium Co and NTPC .

NPCIL may exceed its annual generation target of 22 billion units for 2010-11 due to availability of imported fuel, Mr Ghai said. In April-September, the utility generated 10.85 billion units of electricity, up 5% from the target for the period. “With this trend, the total generation in 2010-11 is expected to be about 10% higher than the target fixed for the corresponding period,” Mr Ghai said. Courtesy:ET

13 October 2010 PB

Big Qatari LNG tanker heads for US

According to AIS Live ship tracking data, Qatari liquefied natural gas tanker Al Dafna is heading to the US, carrying what could be a second test cargo for the new Golden Pass LNG terminal.The AIS ship tracker on Reuters showed that the Q-Max tanker, one of the world's largest super cooled gas carriers with a capacity of 266,000 cubic meters passed the Algerian capital of Algiers.

At its current speed of just under 19 knots the vessel could arrive at the terminal near Port Arthur, Texas by October 18. The terminal operator said that Golden Pass where construction was delayed by hurricane damage sustained in 2008 would take its first test cargo from the 210,000 cubic meters Al Khuwair tanker which is expected to arrive on October 20.

Analysts said that it could need up to 5 test cargoes to prepare the terminal for commercial operation but the operator has declined to comment on expected deliveries. The Golden Pass LNG terminal said on Wednesday it had still not got permission to take in the first cargo after applying to the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in late September.

The start up of Golden Pass LNG JV between Qatar Petroleum, ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips could absorb some LNG that is expected to enter an already well supplied global market as big Qatari production facilities open in the next few months.

Work on Golden Pass began in 2006 before the US lost much of its appetite for imported gas because of a surge in North American shale gas production.Qatari vessels now rarely deliver to the US because of a slide in prices, which has left many LNG producers scrambling for new markets and most terminals on the US.Courtesy:REUTERS

12 October 2010 PB

Monday, October 4, 2010

Ethanol blended petrol

Ethanol blended petrol to be available from November
04 Oct 2010 PETROLEUM BAZAAR


PUNE: With oil companies finally accepting letters of intent (LoI) from ethanol manufacturers in the country to facilitate five per cent blending of ethanol with petrol, the green fuel would be made available in the market as early as next month.
The companies have accepted 143 LoI, for supplying 71.74 crore litres of ethanol to the companies. Maharashtra will supply 29.45 crore litres for the time being, of which 13.92 crore litres would be utilised by Maharashtra, and the remaining would be utilised by other states. Rest of the ethanol will come from ethanol manufacturers from north India, added R G Mane, secretary of the Ethanol Manufacturers' Association (EMA).
Vijaysinh Mohite Patil, chairman the EMA said, "The supply of ethanol will start within fifteen days, and the common man may get the green fuel by November first week. It will certainly help the sugar industry as well as the farmers."
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on August 16 approved the proposal for implementation of the ethanol blended petrol programme, under which five per cent ethanol will be blended with petrol.
Ethanol blending is considered eco friendly, besides cutting down on expenses on import of fuel. The government has fixed the price of ethanol at Rs 27 per litre, excluding transportation charges which would be borne by oil companies.
R G Mane, secretary of the association said, "EMA has submitted 195 LoI, of which 143 were accepted. Some LoI submitted by ethanol manufacturers, who are not associated with any sugar factories, were rejected by the oil companies on technical grounds."
A meeting of Union petroleum minister Murli Deora and Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar has been scheduled next week to solve the issue of the rejected LoIs. Courtesy: TOI

Friday, September 24, 2010

Indian Oil to set up LPG terminal at Paradeep


Indian Oil to set up Rs 90-crore LPG terminal at Paradeep


23 Sep 2010 PETROLEUM BAZAAR
Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL), the country's largest oil marketing company, plans to invest Rs 90 crore in setting up of an LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) terminal and a bottling plant at the site of its proposed refinery cum petrochemical complex, five km south of Paradeep.
"Our LPG terminal cum bottling plant will come up at the site of the proposed refinery cum petrochemical complex at a cost of Rs 90 crore. This LPG terminal is expected to be operational by March 2010”, V Ramgopal, general manager (marketing) cum State Level Coordinator (Orissa) of IOCL told Business Standard. IOCL's 15 million tonne per annum (mtpa) refinery cum petrochemical complex being taken up at a cost of Rs 29,777 crore was expected to be commissioned by March 2012 and stabilized by December 2012.
The refinery cum petrochemical complex would come up on 3300 acres. It may be noted that IOCL is the anchor tenant for the PCPIR (Petroleum, Chemicals and Petrochemicals Investment Region) hub to be spread over Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapara districts an area of 274.15 sq km.
IOCL has targeted to add 63,000 new LPG customers in Orissa this year. The two other oil marketing firms- Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum (HP) would add 45,000 and 60,000 customers respectively meaning a total addition of 168,000 new LPG connections in the state in 2010-11.Courtesy:BS

Friday, September 3, 2010

HPCL plans to set up Rs 15,000 crore refinery

03 Sep 2010 PETROLEUM BAZAAR

NEW DELHI: State-run Hindustan Petroleum Corp (HPCL) plans to invest about Rs 15,000 crore in setting up a 9 million tons-a-year refinery on the west coast.
The new refinery, which may be in Raigad district of Maharashtra, is being mulled to make up for space constraint that its Mumbai refinery faces at present.
"We have been shown three pieces of land by Maharashtra government. We should be able to finalise the location in next few weeks," a company official said.
HPCL wants to build a 9 million tons unit and then double it at a later date. "We should be able to finalise location and size of the refinery in 3-4 months," he said. "A consultant for doing detailed feasibility report (DFR) will be appointed soon."
The land offered for the refinery is located between Ratnagiri and Raigad districts. The unit, called Maharashtra Refinery, would be completed in 48 months from the date of receiving all approvals, he said.
"We face tremendous space constraint at our 6.5 million tons-a-year Mumbai refinery. A refinery of this size is spread over 2,000 acres of land but our refinery is spaced in just 350 acres. We feel in 5-10 years, the space constraint will make the unit inefficient," the official said.
He said the Mumbai refinery may eventually be shutdown once the new refinery is built. "That decision we need to take in 6-7 years."
HPCL has a 7.5 million tons-a-year unit at Vizag in Andhra Pradesh and is also building a 9 million tons plant at Bhatinda in Punjab in joint venture with steel czar Lakshmi Mittal.
"We are commissioning a feasibility study which we expect will be completed in six months. Investment decision will be made based on the feasibility study," he said. Courtesy:ET

Sunday, August 8, 2010

OMCs uncertain, but producers certain about future

06 Aug 2010 PETROLEUM BAZAAR

The future looks bleak for oil marketing companies (OMCs), despite decontrol of petrol prices and increase in prices of other petroleum products. But oil producers like ONGC (Oil and Natural Gas Corporation) and OIL (Oil India) are optimistic about their future performance.

The OMCs — Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation — posted a combined net loss of Rs 6,990 crore for the June quarter, as their underrecoveries of around Rs 13,500 crore remained uncompensated. The gross underrecoveries for the quarter stood at around Rs 20,000 crore. Of this, roughly one-third, or Rs 6,600 crore, was borne by upstream companies like ONGC and OIL. The government, which freed petrol price and increased diesel, kerosene and LPG prices in June, is yet to come out with subsidy sharing mechanism for the underrecoveries. The gross underrecoveries in 2010-11 on petrol, diesel, kerosene and LPG (till June 25) are estimated at Rs 53,000 crore, considering an average crude oil price of $75 a barrel.

“While no provision (for underrecoveries) has been made in the Budget of current fiscal, we have requested the finance ministry to provide Rs 13,500 crore,” said Petroleum Secretary S Sundareshan. S V Narasimhan, director (finance), Indian Oil, which incurred a net loss of Rs 3,388 crore in the first quarter, said their future performance would depend on government compensation.

The upstream oil companies, led by ONGC, have also seen a dip in their net profits for the June quarter. They, however, are buoyant about their performance in the remaining three quarters, on declining subsidy and higher price of gas. Of the estimated Rs 53,000-crore underrecoveries for the year, roughly one-third, or Rs 17,666 crore, has to come from the upstream sector. Considering that they have already paid Rs 6,600 crore in the first quarter, they may have to pay another Rs 11,000 crore over the remaining three quarters.

“We should be able to show better results going forward on account of the increase in price of administered price mechanism (APM) gas which happened from June 1. There will also be a lower subsidy burden going forward,” said ONGC Chairman and Managing Director R S Sharma.
The company saw its net profit declining 24.5 per cent to Rs 3,661 crore, since its subsidy burden jumped from Rs 429 crore to Rs 5,515 crore. The government has more than doubled the price of APM gas to $4.20 per million British thermal units. The increase in gas price is expected to add up to Rs 900 crore annually to the company’s bottom line.

OIL, whose net profit declined by 32 per cent, is also upbeat on its future performance. “We are hopeful that the subsidy burden shall come down in the remaining quarters,” said N M Borah, chairman and managing director. Courtesy: BS

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

LNG terminal near Ennore port

05 Aug 2010 PETROLEUM BAZAAR

CHENNAI: A Rs.10,000-crore liquefied natural gas terminal will come up at Kattupalli near the Ennore port, on the northern outskirts of Chennai.To be implemented by the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO), the terminal project has other components – the establishment of a re-gassified facility and a 1,000 megawatt (MW) power project.On Wednesday, B.M. Bansal, IOC Chairman and Rajeev Ranjan, TIDCO Chairman and Principal Secretary (Industries) of the State government, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) at the Secretariat in the presence of Chief Minster M. Karunanidhi, Deputy Chief Minister M.K. Stalin and Chief Secretary K.S. Sripathi.

Mr. Ranjan signed two other MoUs – one for setting up a plant to manufacture electronic products in the State Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu (SIPCO) industrial park in Manamadurai and another for an automotive tyre facility project in Sriperumbudur. Both projects would entail an investment of Rs. 1,500 crore each. JK Tyre & Industries would establish the tyre facility and the Videocon group, the electronic goods plant.

Pradeepkumar N. Dhoot, director of Unity Appliances, a constituent of the Videocon group, and Arun K. Bajoria, president and director of the tyre company, were the other signatories of the MoUs.The LNG terminal [in Kattupalli] would handle five million tonnes per year and the re-gassified facility's capacity would be 20 million cubic metre per day of natural (vapourised) gas.The timeframe for implementing the project would be four years from the date of approval by the Board of Directors of the public sector undertaking.

The approval was expected by December 2010 or January 2011. Mr. Bansal said the Kattupalli terminal would be the first along the eastern coast. Already, there were two terminals. The third terminal was coming up in Kochi.The IOC chairman said 250 acres were required for the terminal project. Asked from where the gas would be imported, he replied that discussions were on with the representatives of the Middle East, African countries and Malaysia.

Raghupati Singhania, vice-chairman and managing director of JK Tyre, said the first tyre would roll out from the plant by October 2011. and the entire project would be completed by March 2012.Green technology would be adopted. An official release said the LNG terminal project was expected to generate 7,000 jobs.Coutesy:THE HINDU