13 Jan 2009;business-standard.com:Mumbai: Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) yesterday unveiled its lastest sports utility vehicle 'Xylo' at Nashik. The company will be officially launching the four variants of the model nationally today.
Xylo-E2 is priced (ex-showroom Delhi) at Rs 6,24,500, while the Xylo-E4 will be sold at Rs 6,69,500.
The E6 variant is priced at Rs 7,32,500 and the E8 variant will be sold at Rs 7,69,500.
The bookings for 'Xylo' will commence from tomorrow onwards.
Pawan Goenka (L), chief operation officer, Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M), and Anand Mahindra, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, Mahindra & Mahindra were present for the launch at its Nashik plant in Maharashtra yesterday.
13 Jan 2009;business-standard.com:New Delhi: The Shell Group today said it plans to create a retail network by setting up more outlets in future.
"Our retail outlet network programme is going ahead as planned," Vikram Singh Mehta Chairman Shell Group of companies told reporters here. However, he did not disclose the number.
"Can't say how many we are setting up, but the intention is to create a retail network," Mehta said.
The company has also expanded the capacity of its liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal at Hazira to three million tonnes.
It may import LNG cargo from Australia on Thursday, after a gap of almost three months.
Shell had last imported LNG cargo at its Hazira terminal in Gujarat on October 13, 2008, from Trinidad and Tobago for $20.5 per mmBtu.
On January 1, GAIL had said that it had bought LNG from Shell India at $11.7 per mmBtu.
On whether Shell has been hit by the global financial meltdown, he said, "Economic recession has not hit our network."
13 Jan 2009;timesofindia.indiatimes.com:NEW DELHI: Qatar, the world's largest liquefied natural gas exporter, on Tuesday said it will sell additional LNG cargoes to India this fiscal to
ease fuel deficit faced by power and fertilizer units in the country.
"We will sell more extra (LNG) cargoes this year," Qatari Oil Minister Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah said on his arrival here to attend the Petrotech 2009 conference.
RasGas of Qatar currently sells 5 million tons a year of LNG to Petronet LNG under a 25-year contract. An additional 2.5 million tons would be supplied under the same contract from fourth quarter of 2009.
Qatar, which last year came to the rescue of beleaguered Dabhol power plant by agreeing to supply just over 1.25 million tons, is likely to supply six cargoes this year beginning February. "India is our single largest customer. Last year we had sold extra cargoes (beyond the long-term contract) and this year we will attempt to send more," he said.
Petronet needs 24 cargoes in 2009 to meet the fuel needs of 2,150 MW Dabhol power plant in Maharashtra and Pragati Power Plant in Delhi.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during his maiden visit to Qatar in November last year had pitched for importing 2.5 million tons a year of additional LNG on long term basis to meet the growing energy needs.
Qatar, which has the world's third largest reserves of gas, in first five years to December 2008 sold LNG to Petronet at USD 2.53 per million British thermal unit. From January, this price has been revised to USD 3.12 per mmBtu, but it is still one-third of the current spot LNG price.
13 Jan 2009;hindustantimes.com:Anupama Airy:New Delhi: The oil PSU officers' strike is over, but commuters might face long lines in petrol stations for some more time. Petrol dealers, in anticipation of a fuel price cut, are storing limited stocks of petrol and diesel from the oil companies. Same for the distributors of cooking gas (LPG) cylinders. As a result, several pumps are running out of stock well before closing time.
Petroleum Minister Murli Deora has indicated several times that the government is mulling a price cut in petrol and petroleum products, but there is no clarity on the timing of the cut. He has indicated that the price of petrol may be reduced up to Rs 5 a litre, Rs 3 for diesel and Rs 20 to Rs 25 for a LPG cylinder.
Ajay Bansal, the general secretary of All-India Petroleum Traders told the Hindustan Times that the petrol pump dealers, who were earlier buying 50,000 to 60,000 litres of petrol and diesel daily, are now buying no more than 15,000 to 20,000.
“The average stock capacity of a petrol pump is around one lakh litre of petrol and diesel each. If we stock the fuels to our normal capacity, and the price reduction is announced, a petrol pump might lose up to Rs 10 lakh daily. Nobody can afford to bear such losses even if it means less sales for few days,” he said.
Cautious buying by dealers is eventually hurting the sale of petroleum products by the three state-owned oil marketing firms — Indian Oil Corp, Hindustan Petroleum Corp and Bharat Petroleum Corp.
Confirming the move from petrol dealers, a senior oil company executive said, “Dealers do not want to be saddled with high cost inventory stocks, which they may have to later sell at a lower price. This has resulted in a sharp drop in sales of petroleum products by the oil companies.”
13 Jan 2009;timesofindia.indiatimes.com:NEW DELHI: State-run Oil India Ltd has raised a war chest 1.5 to 2 billion dollars and is eying acquisition of small to medium sized oil producing
companies overseas.
"There are companies who are facing cash problems because of the global economic meltdown. We are well placed with sizeable amount of fund and would like to use them to buyout these small to medium sized companies or any of their oil producing fields," Oil India Ltd (OIL) Chairman and MD N M Borah said here.
OIL, he said has over Rs 6,000 crore of cash surplus and is generating another about Rs 2,000 crore surplus every year.
"Yes, we are looking at certain companies or their assets. I would not like to divulge details at this moment as talks are at the sensitive stage," he said.
The Assam-based company is interest in exploration blocks in Egypt, Libya, Nigeria, Gabon, Iran, Yemen and East Timor.
Borah said the company has appointed US consultant PFC for suggesting an overseas acquisition strategy. PFC would advice on the focus countries and the kind of assets OIL should be targeting.
"The report is expected in two months time," he said. OIL, currently, is the operator only in two properties overseas in Libya and Gabon. It will drill its first exploration well in the Libya in the first half of 2009.
Domestically, the company is looking at 18 per cent growth in crude oil production at 3.5 million tonnes this fiscal.
12 Jan 2009;business-standard.com:Mumbai: India’s leading car maker, Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL) has no plans to cut production despite the challenging market conditions and would go ahead with its expansion plans in the months ahead, a top company official said.
“We are not seeking any production cut and have no plans to change production schedule in January. The sales have gone up in December, 2008 as compared to the previous month owing to excise cut and reduction in petrol prices,” MSIL’s Managing Director and CEO, Shinzo Nakanishi said.
The company has plans to expand its production capacity of its Manesar plant in Haryana to 300,000 units by end-January, he said.
“Our car manufacturing capacity at Manesar will reach three lakh units this month from 1.7 lakh in January 2007,” Nakanishi said. Commenting on the capex plans, Nakanishi said, “We have committed an investment of Rs 9,000 crore, of which we have already invested Rs 6,000 crore to fuel the business growth.”
The company proposes to invest Rs 2,500 crore for increasing diesel engine capacity from 100,000 to 300,000 units, a company official said. Maruti has restarted its small car exports to Europe after a gap of four years and hopes to export 1.5 lakh cars in 2010-2011.
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