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Friday,
May 12, 2006, Chandigarh, India
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ONGC finds gas in Assam, KG basin
Arcelor sues Mittal in USA
Reliance plan to buy sugarcane worries M’rashtra politicians
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Proposals on merger of airlines accepted
Cements India to set up plant in Himachal
Govt may allow power regulators to fix open access surcharge
P.D.Narang new PTL Chairman
FDI proposals
WebEx to expand in Punjab, Haryana
CAG raps BSNL for poor quality
Central Bank hikes interest rates
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ONGC finds gas in Assam, KG basin
New Delhi, May 11 It also found gas at KG-DWN-98/2 block in the Krishna Godavari Basin, off the Andhra coast. The discovery was made at prospect E-1. “The discovery was made by Transocean deepwater drillship Discoverer Seven Seas,” the source said, adding that about eight metres thick gas pay zone was found in the well at 1600 metres depth. Another gas show was encountered at between 2300 and 2400 metres where a pay zone of between 35 and 40 metres was expected. “The finds are yet to be tested for potential in-place and recoverable reserves,” the source said. Earlier, Belford Dolphin drillship found gas at W-1 location in the KG-DWN-98/2 block, where Cairn Energy of the UK holds a 10 per cent stake. The ONGC has the remaining 90 per cent. Gas flowed at 225,000 cubic metres per day from a 15-metres thick pay zone, he added.
MRPL petro products for Mauritius
Meanwhile, Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd( MRPL), a subsidiary of the ONGC, will export close to a million tonnes of petroleum products to Mauritius. MRPL will meet all of the gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and furnace oil requirement of Mauritius in the year to July 2007, the company said. The State Trading Corp of Mauritius has finalised the imports with MRPL. “The supplies will commence from August 2006,” the company said. This is the first time that Mauritius will import petroleum products from India. The ONGC has earlier entered into a MoU for oil and gas exploration in Mauritius, and preparatory actions have been initiated. ONGC Chairman and Managing Director and MRPL Chairman Subir Raha said despite the hardening of international prices and ocean freight, MRPL had offered very attractive and competitive prices to
Mauritius. — PTI
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Arcelor sues Mittal in USA
London, May 11 Arcelor filed the suit for patent infringement on its Usibor technology, used in high-strength steel for auto-body panels, Luxembourg-based spokesman Luc Scheer said today. “This way of defending our patent rights is not related to the Mittal bid situation,” Mr Scheer
said. Arcelor’s decision to begin legal action was reported earlier by the Luxembourg press.
— Bloomberg
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Mukesh word to investors
Mumbai, May 11 "Investor thrust in RIL will be rewarded in full measure," he said before RPL listing on the bourses. The IPO of 45 crore equity shares was oversubscribed by 53 times with commitments made for Rs 143,000 crore or $32 billion. "This is the largest for any greenfield project anywhere in the world. It is six times the FDI India received in a year." Overwhelmed by the investors' response to RPL's IPO, Mr Ambani said, "No word would be enough to express gratitude....I welcome 12.6 lakh new investors to the Reliance family, and particularly to Reliance Petroleum." RPL will invest Rs 27,000 crore in building a 29 million tonnes per annum refinery in Jamnagar Special Economic Zone and would export most of the products to the US and European markets. The refinery will be the sixth largest in the world, Mr Ambani said.
— PTI
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RPL makes grand debut
Mumbai, May 11 RPL Limited with 70 per cent premium on the stock markets as against the fixed issue price of Rs 60 for every Rs 10
share. RPL touched a high of Rs 105 on the NSE in the intra-day trade before profit booking let it to slide below Rs 100, the intra-day low on the BSE was Rs 81 and it was Rs 85 on the
NSE. RPL finally closed at Rs 85.45 on the BSE with than 7.27 crore shares worth around Rs 700 crore traded.
— UNI
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Reliance plan to buy sugarcane worries M’rashtra politicians
Mumbai, May 11 RIL has announced that it would buy sugarcane at the rate of Rs 1,500 per tonne as against Rs 850 per tonne paid by Maharashtra’s sugar co-operatives. The company aims to manufacture ethanol, a petroleum additive from sugarcane. RIL has already begun to retool a plant near Pune to manufacture ethanol. RIL is also expected to make spot payments on purchase of sugarcane, thereby making it attractive for farmers to sell their produce to the company. In contrast, the state’s sugar co-operatives are known to delay payments for months and years altogether, forcing farmers into debt and poverty. However, politicians are taking recourse to laws preventing the movement of raw cane from one district to another in order to retain their hold on the co-operatives. A few like the Maratha strongman Sharad Pawar have begun to play the Reliance song. At a function in Pune recently, he asked the powerful co-operative bosses to get into the ethanol business. Offering a Central Government package to modernise the sugar co-operatives, Mr Pawar said it would enable the modernisation and refinancing of these institutions. Though Maharashtra’s 202 sugar cooperatives produce 99 per cent of the sugar in the state, poor management and political interference has brought many of them to their knees. Only 165 of these sugar co-operatives are functional though they run up huge losses. Ten have lost their licences while 10 others are being liquidated and 17 are being restructured.
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Reliance hikes petrol prices New Delhi, May 11
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Proposals on merger of airlines accepted
New Delhi, May 11 It has been decided that user rights over such infrastructure that are given to an airline on a non-payment basis — like parking bays and landing slots — may be allowed to be used by airlines that takes over the aircraft. For all other rights, the terms of lease or sale agreement between airport operator and airline will apply, Minister for Civil Aviation Praful Patel told Parliament today. He said Indian had no plans to add new stations to its existing network due to fleet constraints. On route dispersal guidelines, Mr Patel said the government had laid down the rule for better regulation of air transport services and taking into account the need of the different regions of the country. At present, 72 destinations were covered by scheduled airline services.
— UNI
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Cements India to set up plant in Himachal
Shimla, May 11 The plant, which will come into production over the next four years, will cost Rs 750 crore and provide direct employment to 300 persons and indirect employment to 4,000. The company has seven cements plants in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. All top cement companies of the country and the world’s largest cement manufacturing company, Lafarge, were among the bidders for the project. Mr Virbhadra Singh said the government was selective in the exploitation of the vast limestone reserve, which is spread across the state. Cement plants were being allowed to come up in areas where habitation was scarce and the land uncultivable. Moreover, industrial projects would not be allowed to come up at the cost of environment. The companies would be obliged to install latest pollution control equipment and carry out plantation on a large scale. Further, the government had made it mandatory for private sector companies to recruit 70 per cent of the manpower from within the state and provide funds to the tune of 1.5 per cent of the cost of project for the local area development. At least one member of the family, which gave land for the project, would have to be given job, besides a good rehabilitation package.
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Govt may allow power regulators to fix open access surcharge
New Delhi, May 11 The policy, announced by the Power Ministry in January, had fixed a uniform formula for all state regulators to calculate the cross-subsidy surcharge for open access in distribution. The surcharge has to be paid by the consumers to compensate the loss in revenue to their existing electricity suppliers for moving away to another distribution company. However, regulators had said that the uniform formula was difficult to apply in different states and wanted the flexibility to fix the surcharge. Endorsing the regulators’ view, Power Secretary R.V. Shahi said today: “India is a large country and it is difficult to apply one formula for everyone. The issue of surcharge needs to be revisited.” “The ministry is working on the issue to see how flexible it should be made. This should happen very soon,” he said at a seminar on Indian Electricity, 2006. Central Electricity Regulatory Commission Chairman A.K. Basu, who also heads the Forum of Regulators, said the surcharge was the only major unresolved issue in the policy since as per the prescribed formula, there was a wide variation in the surcharge in different states. Asked as to how the policy would be changed, Mr Basu said: “I cannot say this, as the ministry has to decide. But it is a Cabinet decision and may require an amendment.” Mr Basu said according to the formula, the surcharge was coming to negative Rs 0.69 per unit in some states and Rs 1.89 in some states, he said. This means that in some states, the utility would have to pay 69 paise to the consumers for moving away to another distribution company. This is opposite to the intention of the policy, where the consumers have to compensate the companies for revenue loss. On the other hand, in some other states like Madhya Pradesh, the consumer would have to pay Rs 1.89 per unit to its existing supplier for selecting another distribution firm. The Tariff Policy had continued with the provision of cross subsidy to people below poverty line who consume electricity below a specified level. The surcharge was not linked to the average cost of purchasing power but instead to the top 5 per cent of the purchase costs for electricity boards. Further, it will be reduced progressively to a maximum of 20 per cent of its opening level by 2010-11. Mr Basu and Mr Shahi said there was no difference of opinion between the CERC and the Ministry of Power on the issue of ultra mega power
plants. — PTI
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P.D.Narang new PTL Chairman
New Delhi, May 11 "Mr Narang has been appointed as the Chairman of Punjab Tractors Ltd. He succeeds Mr S.K. Tuteja, who was non-executive chairman," company sources said. Mr Yash Mahajan continues to be the Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of the company. The Board recommended a final dividend of 60 per cent for the fiscal, which when coupled with the 45 per cent interim dividend announced earlier, takes the full dividend for 2005-06 to 105 per cent. The company's revenues for the financial year ended March 31, 2006, saw a 19 per cent growth at Rs 1,024.5 crore. After acquiring a 11 per cent stake in PTL last November, Dabur had named Mr Narang as its Director on the company's Board.
— PTI
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FDI proposals
New Delhi, May 11 The other big proposals cleared by Finance Minister P. Chidambaram include Rs 44.54 crore of FDI each by the Itochu Corporation and the UK-based Goldshield Group. Goldshield Group Plc of UK will invest Rs 44.54 crore in setting up a holding company in Goa for real estate development.
— PTI
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Gold glitters at Rs 10,490
Chennai, May 11 Standard gold (24ct) shot up by Rs 115 per 10 gm to close the day at Rs 10,490 and ornament gold (22ct) by Rs 10 per gm over yesterday's position. When the market began, standard gold (24ct) spurted by Rs 65 per 10 gm to begin at Rs 10,440 against yesterday's rate of Rs 10,375, and rallied further to conclude at Rs 10,490, showing a net rise of Rs 115. Ornament gold (22ct) rose by Rs 6 per gram to open at Rs 967 and moved up further to finish the day at Rs 971 over yesterday's close of Rs 961, gaining Rs 10 per gm. However, Bar Silver (per kg) started the day Rs 70 higher at Rs 21,920, but later declined to settle at Rs 21,750, Rs 100 lower compared to yesterday's close of 21,850.
— PTI
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WebEx to expand in Punjab, Haryana
Chandigarh, May 11 Speaking to TNS, he said that Punjab and Haryana are a strategic market for Web Ex, which so far has its presence in Chennai, Bangalore, Pune, Mumbai and Delhi. “The company launched its Indian operations (which include operations in India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan) in audio, video and web conferencing in the year 2003. “In Punjab, a surge in textile exports and global acquisitions by the textile companies will benefit from our conferencing solutions,” he said.
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CAG raps BSNL for poor quality
New Delhi, May 11 While the company created a capacity of 26.89 lakh lines for its fixed and limited mobile WLL phones — Tarang — only 16.28 lakh lines were provided as of March 2006 with capacity utilisation at 60.53 per cent mainly on account of deficiencies in planning, procurements, network coverage and poor quality of service, said the report which was tabled in Parliament today. "... There should have been optimal capacity utilisation and efficient operational performance, it said. "BSNL had a target of providing one WLL system in each of the 2642 Short Distance Charging Areas (SDCAs) till 2001-02, but even up to October 2005, it had not reached the target and had provided WLL systems only in 2,185 SDCAs," the audit said.
— PTI
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Central Bank hikes interest rates
Mumbai, May 11 The bank has revised the rates for a maturity of one year to less than three years at 6.75 per cent from 6.25 per cent, while for a maturity of three years to less than five years, it has been revised at 7 per cent from 6.50 per cent, a press note issued here said. For a maturity period of five years and above, the interest rate will be 7.25 per cent as against the existing 6.75 per cent, the press note added. — UNI
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