Cairn's Mangala field output crosses 1.25 lakh bpd
29 August 2010;business-standard.com:Jaipur: Crude oil production from the Mangala oilfield in Rajasthan has crossed the 1.25 lakh barrels per day mark and is expected to further increase to 1.75 lakh barrels per day (bpd) by early 2011, a Cairn India spokesman said here today. Crude from the Mangala oilfield -- which holds the biggest onland crude reserves in the country -- is being transported to three buyer companies via the world's longest heated crude pipeline, the spokesman said. This pipeline uses a Skin Effect Heat Management System to keep the Mangala crude in liquid form, as it solidifies at normal temperatures, he explained. Cairn is developing the Mangala oilfield in a joint venture consortium with state-owned oil explorer ONGC. While Cairn has 70 per cent participating interest in the project, ONGC holds the remaining 30 per cent. Production from Mangala will help reduce the country's crude import bill, the spokesman claimed. At present, India imports about 24 lakh barrels of oil per day (bopd), while domestic production is about 7 lakh bopd. Production from Mangala will add about 25 per cent to domestic crude output. Crude production from Mangala has raced to 1.25 lakh barrels per day within a short span of 12 months and by the end of next year, the state of Rajasthan will be one of the largest contributor's to the country's petroleum production. The state will earn Rs 1,100 crore or more as revenue during FY11 on the sales of crude oil from the state, which is likely to increase in the coming years before the reservoir goes into natural decline. According to an estimate, at the peak output of 1.75 lakh bopd, the state will get Rs 8 crore per day as revenue. The Mangala oilfield was discovered by Cairn in 2004. Since then, 25 discoveries have been made, including Bhagyam, Aishwariya, Saraswati and Raageshwari.
29 August 2010;timesofindia.indiatimes.com:NEW DELHI: The world's largest car-maker Toyota today said it will start trial production of its much anticipated small car 'Etios' for the Indian market from next month, three months ahead of its proposed launch. The Japanese car major, which is present in India through a joint venture with the Kirloskar Group, is investing Rs 3,200 crore to set up its second manufacturing facility in Bangalore to roll out its first small car in India by December. "Before starting the commercial production in December, we will have two rounds of trial productions. While one will start in September, the next one will be in October," Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) Deputy Managing Director (Commercial) Shekar Viswanathan told PTI. He, however, declined to comment on how many units the company are planning to produce during the round two of trial productions. "These cars are not for sales. We will run it on test tracks for quality and all other checks. We may also later dismantle these cars," Viswanathan said. Over 2,000 engineers from Toyota's Indian and Japanese operations have been working on developing the model for the last four years. Earlier in January, TKM had unveiled the concept Etios, which is being specifically developed for the Indian market. The company will launch both hatchback and sedan under the Etios series with 1.2 litre and 1.5 litre petrol engines respectively. However, the firm later said that it would look into opportunities of introducing a diesel variant also. Last week, Toyota had said that it would study the Indian market to launch a hybrid version of Etios. "We are looking at every possible alternative to launch Etios. Apart from diesel and petrol variants, we will study the market and demand for launching the car in other fuel options ( LPG and CNG) and hybrid mode," Toyota Motor Asia Pacific President Mitsuhiro Sonoda had said. TKM had reported over seven per cent growth in its sales in India last year at 55,497 units and is expecting a jump of 15-20 per cent in 2010. The company is expecting to sell about 65,000 units of the 'Etios' next year out of a target of 1.5 lakh units across all models in India. The company sells sedans Corolla Altis and Camry, SUVs Fortuner and Prado, and utility vehicle Innova in India.
28 August 2010;timesofindia.indiatimes.com:Indrani Basu:NEW DELHI: Barely three months after Tata Motors certified the Nano as "absolutely safe", in a first in Delhi, a car went up in flames at a parking lot in Aurobindo Marg on Friday. The driver managed to get out on seeing sparks; in all of two minutes, only a charred frame remained. The car, which belonged to a Supreme Court advocate, had just pulled into the parking lot around 11.30am when driver Patrick John noticed sparks coming from the rear, where the engine is located. "I was waiting in the car, having just parked it, when sparks started coming out. Thankfully, I managed to leap out of the car in time. I shudder to think what might have happened otherwise, since it was all over so fast. The entire car was destroyed in two minutes flat," said John. Two similar incidents were reported in Vadodara and Mumbai earlier this year following which Tata Motors launched an inquiry. In May, it said the accidents were due to unrelated reasons and that the car was safe. The company has called a probe into Friday's incident; a spokesperson from Mumbai said a Tata team would inspect the vehicle to ascertain the reasons behind the accident. The sky blue Nano bought by SC advocate Ravinder Narayan in May, had done 34,000km and was serviced once. "On Friday, we were driving from Connaught Place to Hauz Khas, so had barely travelled 8-9 kilometres," John said. The driver was travelling with the advocate's manager before the accident occurred. Narayan was unavailable for comment. Automobile experts said the fire was possibly not endemic to the Nano. "It is possible that the car had been tweaked to add some features like power windows or a fancy audio system where the wiring was not done properly," said editor-in-chief of Zigwheels, Adil Jal Darukhanawala. There have been incidents of Nano catching fire right from when deliveries began in March this year. While initially the problem was put down to the combination switch towards the dashboard of the car, incidents later pointed to engine fault which prompted a company investigation. In May, Tata Motors asserted that the Nano was "absolutely safe". A company statement issued on May 21 said: "Tata Motors has undertaken a comprehensive investigation related to the cause of fire in two Tata Nanos. On the basis of the findings of the investigation, conducted by a 20-member internal team and an independent forensic expert, Tata Motors assures all customers that the Tata Nano is a safe car, with a robust design and state-of-the-art components." The latest setback comes at a time when Tata Motors is looking to open new bookings for the Nano after production began at its new plant in Sanand, Gujarat. Analysts said repeated incidents of fire on the Nano could affect demand for the budget car on safety concerns.
Luxury car makers battle it out for Russian buyers
27 August 2010;business-standard.com:Moscow: A roll call of luxury carmakers have descended on Russia to rally the nation's long list of billionaires to snap up their latest models in the wake of last year's industry collapse. Porsche, Jaguar, Cadillac and Bentley are among a host of high end manufacturers renting space at this year's Russia International Motorshow. All four groups expect Russia sales to grow this year as the industry recovers from last year's crisis, driven by rising consumer confidence among the super wealthy and in some cases a restructuring of sales and dealership networks. "In the first half of this year sales increased by 35 per cent ... We did not expect such increases, so now we do not have enough cars for our clients," said Vagif Bikulov, General Manager of Bentley's Moscow dealership, ahead of the show's launch of the Bentley Mulsanne in Russia. SILVER PORSCHE Russia's motorshow did not take place in 2009 as the global economic meltdown devastated car sales in Russia, a coveted target for foreign players who see it as a high growth market. Organisers of the show, which opens to the public on Friday, expect more than 1.5 million driving enthusiasts to view over 600 cars over 10 days at the 100,000 square metre arena, including eight world premiers. Among the most talked-about is a new silver Porsche 911 that costs a minimum of 11.5 million roubles ($287,500), not including optional extras such as a $10,000 spoiler, and an armoured Jaguar XJ for security conscious oligarchs. "Porsche sales were down 35 per cent in Russia last year, more than in our other markets, but what the crisis showed was the need to further develop the dealer network, 2009 was a year of learning, restructuring," said Porsche Russia chief Thomas Startzel. He added that sales had been improving since January. "It's very important to have a dealer network dedicated to Porsche, we need test drives, racing tracks, we have no real working (tracks) in Moscow," he said. The Porsche 911 is the only one of its kind being sold in Russia, and the company said four individual customers were in competition to buy it. DREADFUL CHANGE Mass market producers such as Lada-maker AvtoVAZ have enjoyed a sharp upturn in growth this year thanks to a government sponsored scrappage scheme, but the high-end carmakers said consumer confidence and new models had helped. David Steele, director of sales and marketing at Tata Motors-owned Jaguar, said it had been able to ride the worst of the crisis due to the timely release of new cars. "It was a dreadful economic change, but because we had a new car (the Jaguar XF) in 2008 we were able to sail through the seas," he said. He added that Russia was a key market for Jaguar and partner Land Rover, partly due to the high population of wealthy individuals in Moscow and prevalence of expensive cars. "I look out of the (car) window and it's like a child in a sweetie shop- there are Lamborghinis, Bentleys, Porsches, and more concentrated than every other city I have been in," Steele said.
ONGC examining legal, contractual fallout of Cairn deal
27 August 2010;dailypioneer.com:New Delhi ONGC on Thursday said it is examining legal and contractual implications of the Cairn-Vedanta deal, but refused to say if it will make a counter offer. "We are examining legal and contractual implications of the Cairn-Vedanta deal on us,"said ONGC Chairman and Managing Director RS Sharma. ONGC is a 30 per cent partner of Cairn India in the prolific Rajasthan oilfields, which is at the centre of a $9.6 billion takeover deal by London-based Vedanta group. "In the board meeting today, I appraised the board members of the status ever since the Cairn-Vedanta deal was made public. "We are tracking the developments closely. There are certain strategic issues for any corporate entity which I cannot share," Sharma said. London-listed mining group Vedanta Resources has entered into a deal to acquire 60 per cent stake in Cairn India, but the deal is contingent on Government approval. When asked whether ONGC will make a counter offer, Sharma said: "I would not like to comment."Sources in the oil ministry, which till early this week was nudging ONGC to cobble up an alliance with Oil India and gas utility GAIL for a rival bid, say that the ministry is only awaiting clarifications from UK's Cairn Energy Plc on it selling majority stake in Cairn India. Separately, Corporate Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid told reporters yesterday that "if shareholders approve, we have nothing to do... If shareholders have a problem, they can go to the High Court, CLB or us.”
27 August 2010;dailypioneer.com:New Delhi Unable to absorb further rise in input costs, some carmakers have decided to increase the prices of their products. While Hyundai Motor said it would be hiking prices of its products from September, Toytota said it would the same from October. "Input cost pressure is very high and the yen fluctuation is also affecting us. We will review the prices of our products in October," Toyota Kirloskar Motors Deputy Managing Director (Marketing) Sandeep Singh said. He, however, declined to give any range of the expected price increase. Earlier in the day, Hyundai Motor India said it would be increasing the prices of its products by up to 1.2 per cent across all models, from the 1st of September 2010. This increase is attributed to the increase in input costs. Announcing the hike in prices, Hyundai Motor India Director, (Mktg. & Sales) Arvind Saxena, said: "There has been an increase in the input costs for car manufacturers. We have tried to absorb as much of the cost as we can, to cause as less inconvenience as possible to our valued customers. "
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