LNG From US In next fiscal

NEW DELHI: GAIL India Ltd will import about 5 million tonnes (MT) of LNG from the US next fiscal, replacing the volumes the state-owned utility buys from the spot market, a senior company official said.

GAIL has contracted 5.8 MT per annum of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the US, some of which it has swapped - either by exchanging the gas with someone having it nearer to India or by time-swapping it.

"We expect to receive about 5 million tonnes of LNG from US next fiscal (2018-19)," the official said.

This will be used for replacing the LNG that GAIL currently buys from the spot or current market as well as on short term contracts.

"Out of our LNG buying of about 33 million standard cubic meters per day (8.25 MT per annum), only 17-18 mmscmd comes from long-term contract with Rasgas of Qatar. The rest is all spot or short term contract volumes, which we hope to replace with US LNG," he said.

The official said the company sold a "major chunk" of the US LNG via time swaps, destination swaps and shipping optimisation.

Under the time-swap deals, the company will buy LNG from international companies this year and sell equivalent amount of Henry Hub-indexed volumes during 2018-19.

Besides, to cut shipping costs, it has entered into deals to take deliveries of gas from a nearer location and in exchange given its US volumes to company closer to the origin.

The official said some of the time-swapped volumes have started arriving in India but refused to give details. GAIL has a deal to buy 3.5 MT a year of LNG for 20 years from Cheniere Energy of the US and has also booked capacity for another 2.3 MT at Dominion Energy's Cove Point liquefaction plant.

The company expects US LNG supplies to begin from March/ April next year, he said.

GAIL had contracted LNG from the US to meet the demand of growing Indian economy with power sector being considered as a major buyer. But electricity produced using imported LNG is not finding buyers due to cheaper alternatives including renewables, leading to stranding of significant capacity out of 25,000 MW of installed gas based power plants.

GAIL had in May signed a first-ever time-swap deal to sell some of its US LNG.

Under the agreement, it will get 15 cargoes or about 0.8 MT of LNG from an unnamed trader this year. In return, GAIL will sell 10 cargoes or about 0.6 MT next year from Sabine Pass on the US Gulf coast.

GAIL had separately signed a deal with Royal Dutch Shell to sell about 0.5 million tonnes of its US LNG. The LNG that GAIL will receive this year between April and December under the time-swap deal will be at oil-linked prices. The sale of US gas next year will be at a premium to its pricing formula on a free-on-board basis. RIYADH: Saudi Arabia said on Monday it will trim crude exports to Asian customers in January to help accelerate the rebalancing of the international oil market. An energy ministry spokesman said state-owned Aramco will maintain "steady supplies to the United States and Europe while exports to Asia will be reduced by more than 100,000 barrels per day" from December's production levels.

"This is in line with our continued demonstration of keeping to, and in fact, exceeding, NEW DELHI: India's fuel demand went up by 6.2 per cent in November as diesel consumption showed signs of recovery.

Fuel consumption totalled 17.4 million tonnes (mt) in November against 16.4 mt in the year-ago period, according to the latest data from the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) of the oil ministry.

This mirrors a recovery from 0.9 per cent growth in October, but pales before 10.4 per cent expansion in November last year.

Demand for diesel, which had entered negative territory in October, was up 7.5 per cent at 7.25 mt in November, a sign of increased economic activity.

Diesel is India's most consumed our commitments under the declaration of cooperation," he said in reference to the deal by producers to cut production by 1.8 million bpd. The agreement was last month extended until the end of 2018 in a bid to remove a supply glut from the fuel accounting for over 40 per cent of the total consumption. Its demand had declined by 1.9 per cent in October after a 16.6 per cent jump in September. Petrol sales grew 4.8 per cent at 2.1 mt while cooking gas LPG demand rose 6.7 per cent to 2 mt.

Jet fuel consumption too climbed 8.4 per cent to 6,41,000 tonnes but that of naphtha fell 6.1 per cent to 1.01 mt.

Pet coke, whose use has been banned by the Supreme Court in the national capital and adjoining areas, saw a 10.35 per cent jump in consumption to 1.9 mt, according to the data.

Sales of bitumen, used for making roads, were up 16.4 per cent to 6,17,000 tonnes. market that has sent oil prices crashing. About 24 producing countries, including all 14 members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and NON-OPEC Russia, the world's top producer, are signatories to the deal.

"We hope that by leading by example, our partners from OPEC and NON-OPEC will do the same in order to keep conformity levels above 100 percent and accelerate the rebalancing of the market," the spokesman said. NEW DELHI: Capital markets regulator Sebi has reconstituted its Primary Market Advisory Committee (PMAC) which advises it on issues related to the regulation and development of IPOS and other such segments.

The 24-member panel is chaired by T V Mohandas Pai, Chairman of the Manipal Global Education Services.

PMAC also advises Sebi on matters required to be taken up for changes in legal framework to introduce simplification and transparency in systems and procedures in the primary market. The other members of the panel include BSE CEO Ashish Chauhan, NSE chief Vikram Limaye, ICAI President Nilesh Vikamsey, ICSI President Shyam Agrawal and Sebi's executive directors – Ananta Barua and Amarjeet Singh.

RBI Chief General Manager Lily Vadera, Sebi Chief General Manager Jayanta Jash and Nikhil Verma, deputy secretary at finance ministry are also the members of the panel. NEW DELHI: Original equipment manufacturers will have to seek approval from the Department of Heavy Industry before accepting any proposal to supply electric buses for availing incentives under the FAME India scheme.

The move is aimed at facilitating the smooth roll out and management of demand incentives for electric buses under the scheme.

"... All proposals for supplying electric buses by OEMS registered under FAME India Scheme shall be first brought to the notice of the Department of Heavy Industry in writing.

Once a go ahead is given by DHI, the OEMS will become eligible for FAME incentives.

"OEMS (original equipment manufacturers) are therefore, requested to follow the above instructions and await the directions from DHI before accepting any order where it is proposed to avail benefits for fully electric buses under the FAME India scheme," the department said. CHANDIGARH: Chandigarh got air connectivity with Bangkok on Monday, with Air India launching a direct flight to the famous south-east Asian tourist destination from here.

The flight of the national carrier, which will be operating thrice a week - Monday, Wednesday and Friday - took off from here at about 1350 hrs carrying over 120 passengers.

The maiden flight from the Thailand's capital reached Chandigarh International Airport in the morning before it took off for the return journey in the afternoon. An A320 Neo aircraft has been deployed on the route and the journey will take less than five hours. The 162-seater aircraft will have 150 seats for economy class and 12 in the business class category, Airlines Executive Director (Sales and Marketing), Pankaj Kumar said.

The scheme offers sops on electric and hybrid vehicles of up to Rs 29,000 for bikes and Rs 1.38 lakh for cars, thereby lowering their price for buyers.

With an aim to promote eco-friendly vehicles, the government had launched the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles in India (FAME-INDIA) scheme in 2015.

The FAME India Scheme is aimed at incentivising all vehicle segments, including twowheelers, three wheeler auto, passenger four-wheeler vehicle, light commercial vehicles and buses. The scheme covers hybrid and electric technologies like a strong hybrid, plugin hybrid and battery electric vehicles.