ugust 18, 2017: India virtually is a gas-starved country as domestic production of natural gas is far short of the requirement. Still, it flares a portion of the gas produced. In the 1970s and 80s, a major portion of the associated gas produced in Bombay High was flared. The rate of flaring has been coming down consistently following measures taken by ONGC. How much gas did ONGC flare in FY 2016-17? Click column Gas Scene for details.

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August 17, 2017: Environmentalists woke up very late to the dangers of Petroleum coke. Their first obsession was with the polluting diesel. Quietly, production, import and consumption of Pet coke have been surging over the years. Import reached an all-time high in 2016-17. Click column Special Database for details.

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 August 16, 2017: The Indian media practically ignored the Russian bank, UCP, a member of the consortium which is acquiring Essar Oil’s refinery and retail outlets in a $13 billion deal. Rosneft and Trafigura got all the publicity. Contrary to popular perception, UCP may turn out to be a heavy weight. Read Prof Tom James piece in column Special Reports for details.

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August 14, 2017: Petronet LNG Ltd (PLL) wanted to set up a regasification terminal on the East Coast. First, when Jaipal Reddy was the petroleum minister it identified a location in the state of Andhra Pradesh which was later scuttled by the petroleum secretary on the ground that a terminal cannot be viable without tying up the customers. The move for a location in Odisha did not succeed. Kochi terminal of PLL is rusting and is destined to remain under-utilized in the foreseeable future. It is against this background that PLL is planning to join terminals promoted by IOC and Adani. Click column Gas Scene for details.

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August 11, 2017: India is now known as the biggest exporter of petroleum products in Asia and one of the top three crude importers in the world. But the fact is that India was a major importer of petroleum products till FY 2000-01. With surplus refining capacity mainly on account of refineries of Reliance Industries and Essar, the products surplus touched an all-time high in 2013-14, and dipped thereafter. However, in 2016-17, the surplus was larger than 2015-16. Click column Special Database for details.

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August 10, 2017: The hapless consumers of transportation fuels heaved a sigh of relief in the late 1990s when the government decided to permit private players such as Reliance, Essar and Shell to open retail pumps. But the move flopped when the government decided to restrict fuel subsidy to supplies made by retail outlets of PSU Oil Marketing companies. Now there is no subsidy on diesel or petrol. An international consortium of Rosneft and Trafigura has acquired the 3500 retail outlets of Essar along with the refinery. Will the combine succeed where RIL, Shell and Essar failed? It can, provided the market mechanism changes. Rosneft has a long –term strategy for India. Trafigura is a past master in business battles. Click Free Access column Petro Intelligence of an authentic piece on the subject.