Mumbai oil spill: ONGC to repair pipeline in 4-5 days
23 Jan 2011;business-standard.com:New Delhi: State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) today said it will repair in 4-5 days a pipeline that caused an oil spill some 80-km off the Mumbai coast. "The line is expected to be repaired and normal flow restored in 4 to 5 days," the company said two days after the leak was detected and plugged. There are "no visible signs of oil slick on the sea surface near the site of pipeline leakage", it said, adding, "However, two Coast Guard vessels are at site for surveillance and monitoring." ONGC resumed oil production from its Mumbai High fields by using an alternative sub-sea pipeline hours after the production was halted due to a leak in Mumbai Uran Trunk crude pipeline on Friday. The company said operations at oilfields were nearly normal and that the fields were presently producing at the rate of 300,000 barrels per day as against normal level of 320,000 bpd. ONGC's multi-support vessel 'Samudra Prabha', equipped with repair assessment facilities and divers had located the leakage point. "The most probable reason of leakage is fouling of anchor wire rope, of a construction barge working in the vicinity, with the sub-sea valve assembly of Mumbai High Trunk (MUT) line," ONGC said. "Cleaning of the area with high pressure jets is underway to ascertain the extent of damage. All the required material for repairs is available on board MSVs. The line is expected to be repaired and normal flow restored in 4 to 5 days," it added.
Reliance Industries hits bureaucratic wall; complains to Oil Secretary
23 Jan 2011;economictimes.indiatimes.com:NEW DELHI: With bureaucratic red tape threatening to derail its multi-billion dollar oil and gas hunt campaign, Reliance Industries has complained to Oil Secretary saying that even routine matters are stuck for review/approval for months. Reliance Executive Director PMS Prasad wrote to Oil Secretary S Sundareshan listing out a long list of operational issues at its oil and gas producing and exploration sites that have not been given approval for months. "Of late, we have been facing major difficulties in getting even routine proposals reviewed / approved," he wrote. "You will appreciate that such delays impact Production Sharing Contract (PSC) schedules for exploration, appraisal and development programmes." He said the Management Committee (MC), which comprises of representatives of oil ministry, sector regulator DGH and the oil company, has not approved even the work programme of KG-D6 block, the area that houses the nation's largest gas fields, for the current fiscal. Some of the major issues that are still awaiting MC review / approval (include) the Work Programme and Budget (WP&B) for 2009-10 (revised estimate) and 2010-11 (budget estimate) for KG-D6," he wrote. Normally, the WP&B for a year is approved at the beginning of the financial year but it has not been approved even though only two months are left in the fiscal. Besides, "review of WP&B for 2009-10 (RE) and 2010-11 (BE) for other exploration blocks, approval of budget for pre -development activities for KG-D6 (and) approval of delivery point of condensate (produced from) KG-D6," Prasad wrote. "Delays in review and approval are bound to have an adverse impact on PSC timelines," he said. In the eight page annexure to his four page letter, Prasad gave a date-wise list of pending issues. He said the role of MC, according to PSC, is "restricted to that of a review function." "While we are willing to incorporate inputs from the DGH and provide them with all reasonable information and justification, we request that the distinction between the review and approval function of the MC is maintained and respected by all the parties," he wrote. "Failure to maintain this distinction is resulting in situation where even routine review activities (such as work program and budget) mandated under the PSC take inordinately long time," he said. As an example, Prasad cited the issue of Declaration of Commerciality (DOC) of four gas discoveries made by Reliance in KG-D6 block that has been pending since February last year. "While we are committed to our contractual obligations, we request that government as a party to the contract continues to give full support to our operations. "We do hope that the MCs work to facilitate the smooth conduct of petroleum operations both in letter and spirit," Prasad added.
23 Jan 2011;business-standard.com:Kochi: Ford India would be exporting ‘Figo’ to at least 48 countries this year, including South America, Africa and west Asia, a top official said today. “Last year, Ford exported about 7,000 units of the new model to South Africa as the demand was good. The company has started exporting to Nepal and would be exporting Figo to 48 countries this year,” said N Raja, Vice President (sales), Ford India. Europe would be next, he added. Ford India, a subsidiary of Ford Motor, was eyeing a 50 per cent growth in sales and was targetting to sell more than one lakh cars in 2011, he said. Last year, it sold about 80,000 units. In Kerala, Ford sold 1,500 Figo cars within 100 days of launch. Its sales touched 4,000 units last year and it was hoping to double that number this year.
Volkswagen to sell new Golf starting Nov '12 -paper
22 Jan 2011;economictimes.indiatimes.com:BERLIN: Volkswagen will begin selling the seventh generation of its flagship VW Golf hatchback in Nov. 2012, industry publication Automobilwoche reported on Saturday, citing a person close to VW's chief executive. The Golf Mk VII will be the first Volkswagen brand model to be based on the cost-saving modular transverse architecture, known by its German abbreviation "MQB", that will eventually be used to build some 3 million vehicles group-wide every year. The company has said they expect savings in the double-digit per centage range thanks to a production process that differs from the previous vehicle platforms, which only offer synergies across brands using the same underpinnings rather than synergies across both brands and models. The very first vehicle to use MQB-based modularity will be the new Audi A3 due in the summer of 2012.
21 Jan 2011;timesofindia.indiatimes.com:NEW DELHI: Giving in to rising input cost pressures, the country's largest carmaker by sales, Maruti Suzuki India has increased prices of its vehicles by up to Rs 8,000 across models, except its newly launched compact car Alto K10. "Yes, we did increase the prices on January 17 ranging between 0.5 per cent and 2.2 per cent," said Maruti Suzuki India Managing Executive Officer (Marketing and Sales) Mayank Pareek. Except the new hatchback Alto-K10, the price hike will translate into an increase of price between Rs 1,000 and Rs 8,000 across different models made by the company. The company had in December last year said it would increase prices during January as the rising input costs, especially that of commodities have become unbearable. "The price of natural rubber, which used to be Rs 100 per kg, has gone up to Rs 200 per kg. Copper price has increased by 12-15 per cent and steel has also seen a similar increase," Pareek had said then.
Oil leak under control, spill will disperse in 48 hrs: ONGC
21 Jan 2011;deccanherald.com:New Delhi: The oil leak that created a mile-long slick some 80 km off the Mumbai Coast this morning has been brought under control and the spill is likely to disperse within 48 hours, state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) said. "The leakage of oil has stopped... oil spill is under control... It has been estimated that oil spill will be dispersed within 48 hours," ONGC said in a statement. At around 0845 hours this morning, the company had detected a leak in its Mumbai-Uran Trunk (MUT) oil pipeline, which transports crude oil from the Mumbai High offshore fields. Production from ONGC's Mumbai High field, the nation's biggest oilfield, and Bassein oilfield was stopped immediately after the leak was detected and the pipeline shut down. Output has since been resumed and crude oil from the offshore field is being transported ashore through a separate line. "The Coast Guard had assessed the situation of oil spill and feeling that matter is under control decided to withdraw the Regional Contingency Plan," ONGC said. "Surveillance and monitoring of operations will continue jointly by ONGC and the Coast Guard," it added. The Mumbai High and Bassein fields together produce 247,000 barrels of oil per day, but on account of the brief stoppage, crude output would be about 25,000 barrels less today. "A leak was detected and crude pumping on the line stopped... ONGC has reacted immediately to control the spill," Oil Secretary S Sundareshan said. ONGC said the leakage was observed 2 km from the BPB Platform (Bassein oil and gas field) in the Western Offshore. Oil and gas production from Mumbai High is now being routed through the ICP-Heera-Uran Trunk (HUT) pipeline. The company had sent vessels to the site to ascertain the extent of leakage and contain the spill, as well as repair the pipeline. Shares of ONGC fell after the news and closed 2.6 per cent down at Rs 1,105 on the Bombay Stock Exchange today.
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