Jeep SUV is fourth model in Chrysler electric prototypes
12 Jan 2009;business-standard.com:Detroit: Chrysler LLC, working to keep pace with General Motors Corp and Toyota Motor Corp, added the Jeep Patriot to its fleet of electric prototype vehicles, bringing the total to four.
The sport-utility vehicle gives the third-largest US automaker another development platform for its goal of producing at least one electric auto in 2010, when GM, Toyota and Nissan Motor Co plan to sell or lease electric models. Chrysler showed versions of a minivan, Jeep Wrangler and sports car on September 23.
Like the minivan and Wrangler, the new Patriot has an onboard gasoline engine to replenish the battery that will drive the wheels. The two-seat sports car, now named the Dodge Circuit, is all electric and will be recharged at an outlet.
“We are well on our way to bringing electric vehicles to our consumers’ garages,” Frank Klegon, Chrysler’s product development chief, said on Sunday in a statement released at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.
Chrysler said it will have four electric models in North America by 2013, though it hasn’t specified the timing for any specific vehicles.
That plan depends on Chrysler’s restructuring after getting a $4 billion federal loan to avert a cash crunch. The Auburn Hills, Michigan-based automaker is counting on new models after a 30 per cent plunge in US sales in 2008 and a first-half loss of at least $1.08 billion. The company is owned by Cerberus Capital Management LP.
The minivan, Wrangler and Patriot are almost identical to the gasoline-powered versions except for the drive system.
Those so-called range-extended electric vehicles will travel as far as 40 miles (64 kilometers) on an initial charge and have a range of 400 miles on a tank of gasoline, Chrysler said. Chrysler projects that the Dodge Circuit will go as far as 200 miles on a charge.
Nissan plans to sell a battery-powered car in 2010, when GM is targeting the introduction of the Chevrolet Volt. Toyota said on Saturday it plans to lease 150 plug-in Prius hybrids in the US this year and will have a battery-only model in 2012.
Oil sector officers demand reinstatement after strike ends
11 Jan 2009;business-standard.com:Kalpana Pathak:Mumbai: Oil sector officers, who brought the country to a grinding halt, by going on strike for nearly three days, will appeal to their respective management to reinstate the employees sacked by the companies.
This includes 64 officials who were sacked by the country's largest oil explorer, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and around three employees each by Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and GAIL.
“We have decided to appeal to our board to reinstate the sacked officials. We will be submitting a formal written appeal to the management on Monday,” said an ONGC official who was also on strike demanding higher wages.
When asked about reinstatement of the sacked officials, Petroleum Minister Murli Deora said: “The decision in this case is up to the management. The ministry has nothing to do with it.”
IOC officials have also drafted an appeal to submit to their management. The appeal read: “…Your action will de-motivate our families. We appeal to the management to be magnanimous and revoke the orders given against the striking officers.”
IOC runs about half of the 37,000 fuel retail pumps in the country as well as some of the key refineries like Mathura and Panipat. It has estimated the loss from the strike at about Rs 30 crore per day.
Around 50,000 executives from 13 government-owned oil companies — under the umbrella of the Oil Sector Officer's Association (OSOA) — began an indefinite strike on Wednesday demanding higher wages.
Two-thirds of the petrol pumps across the country ran dry as refineries were shut down. Gas-based power generation was hit, fertilizer production was down and flights were delayed as the oil executives stayed away from work despite invocation of the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) by many states.
A tough-talking government on Friday managed to break the oil officers strike.
11 Jan 2009;business-standard.com:Swaraj Baggonkar:Mumbai: The Air Car, made by French company MDI, could be launched by Tata Motors in India by 2010-11.
Replying to an email query, the French company said, "We will release in France the first cars for the Air France company before June 2009. The cars will be available for the public at the end of 2009."
Mumbai-based Tata Motors, India's third biggest car manufacturer had signed a licensing agreement with MDI for manufacturing the car in India. The agreement between the two envisages development and refinement of the technology.
The Air Car doesn't require traditional fuel options like petrol, diesel, or gas and is driven primarily by compressed air. However, the company has also developed an alternative means to power the car using a combination of air and petrol, diesel or ethanol, just like a hybrid.
"Tata Motors has not finalised any timeframe for deployment of the technology of engines powered by compressed air. Tata Motors is licensed to deploy the technology only in India. As and when we have any details of deployment in India, we will share them with you", said the company’s spokesperson through email.
MDI has developed several models of the Air Car designed to accommodate two to six passengers. A typical three-seater car, which had been unveiled earlier, is about 2.65 metre in length (smaller than Nano, which is 3.1 metre) and 1.62 metre wide (wider than Nano).
The price of the car will be unveiled at the launch, but, according to the company's website, its price may range from Rs 2.33 lakh to Rs 8.69 lakh.
Consumers can use an air compressing device at home or take it to a filling station to fill compressed air. The car is emission-free.
A Mini Flow Air (as labelled by MDI) can travel up to 180 km under urban conditions on mono energy, which is, only compressed air, and up to 1,500 km on dual energy on the highway consuming, just 1.8 litres of petrol.
In addition, the top speed on the mono energy car will be 110 km an hour. On dual energy, it can do 130 km an hour, according to the company.
11 Jan 2009;timesofindia.indiatimes.com:Devraj Dasgupta:MUMBAI: With international crude oil prices stable at $ 40 a barrel, the government is keen to go for a second round of reduction in fuel and gas
prices soon. Union petroleum minister Murli Deora on Saturday said it is possible to cut prices of petrol by Rs 5, diesel by Rs 3 and cooking gas by Rs 25 per cylinder. The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government had reduced prices of petrol by Rs 5 per litre and that of diesel by Rs 2 per litre on December 6 last year.
With the nationwide Oil officers' strike withdrawn, Deora looked relieved on Saturday while reviewing the working of a petrol pump at the Bandra-Kurla Complex. He said the petroleum ministry calculations show that its possible to go in for second round of price cuts as global crude prices have come down to $40 per barrel from a peak of $ 147 a barrel in June last year. "Give us some time, we will work it out soon," he said while avoiding an exact date for announcing the cut.
But the fuel price cut does not seem to be a fallout of market economics alone. Stating that UPA partners will like to see a cut of Rs 50 in price of cooking gas, Deora said it was not feasible to reduce prices beyond Rs 25 per cylinder. "The oil marketing companies are making profit on petrol and diesel, but they are still loosing money on LPG," he said. In simple terms, the government may chip in with higher subsidy on LPG to offer reduced price on cooking gas.
As for kerosene, the fuel used by the aam aadmi, Deora said it was already available at Rs 9 per litre-cheapest in the world.
Fielding questions on oil companies, Deora said they will register profits in the January to March quarter provided crude prices stay at $40 a barrel.
Importantly, Deora said the government may allow oil companies to decide petro prices on their own depending upon market dynamics. "We can think of de-regulating the pricing mechanism. Now that international crude prices are low and stable, its the right time to think of it," he said.
10 Jan 2009;dailypioneer.com:Durgesh Nandan Jha/ Rohini Mitra:New Delhi/Ghaziabad/Gurgaon: The nation heaved a sigh of relief on Friday evening after the oil majors called off their strike. The sense was more palpable especially in the metros, larger cities and the National Capital Region (NCR).
With the strike already in its third day, a lot more than just vehicles came to a grinding halt in the NCR and elsewhere. The satellite cities, which function largely on back-up power, faced a severe crisis during the last two days due to the drying up of diesel supplies.
Most high-rise buildings, where elevators are propelled by generators for large part of the day, ordered midnight-to-morning shutdown to save on diesel. The upmarket malls in Noida, Ghaziabad and Gurgaon had already decided to down shutters before sunset as there wasn't enough diesel to run the generators to 'lighten up' the evening.
The oil sector strike, which disrupted fuel supplies across the country, was on Friday evening called off after the Government threatened to crack down on agitating officers with threats of arrests and dismissals. The strike was called off by executives of individual oil and gas companies one after the other, as the Government talked tough and ruled out conceding any of their demands for higher wages while they held the country to ransom.
"This has come as a big relief. The situation was panicky as we had no options and were left at the mercy of the striking oil companies. In big cities like Delhi, there can be no life without electricity and fuel," said Mrinalini Sharma, a housewife outside Pacific Mall.
Earlier in the day, the Pacific Mall in Ghaziabad sent a circular to all its occupants around 2 pm and asked them to close shop by 4 pm because of the fuel scarcity.
"The situation is beyond our control and hence the mall will be closed at 4 pm. Meanwhile, we are trying to arrange some diesel. If it is arranged by the night, the mall can be rendered operational by 4 pm on Saturday. You can check with the undersigned after 6 am on Saturday regarding the mall's functioning on Saturday," read the circular.
The officials, who managed to get some diesel by the evening, were using it in a rationed manner. Half of the shops were closed and there was no light outside. The coffee house had only a handful of people, all struggling with the chores in the dim light.
"To get away from the boredom at home, caused by outages for the last four hours, we planned to come here for shopping. But it's almost closed. The few shops open are either winding up operations or working in dim lights," Sharma added. Several offices and big housing societies too faced the impact of the strike. While the offices wrapped up work early in the evening, multi-storeyed apartments were witness to chaos caused by clogged lifts and busy staircases.
The Millennium City, Gurgaon, was equally affected as all the well-known malls - including the Metropolitan and Sahara - and discotheques and companies closed their doors after lunch on Friday.
Haryana Industrial Association secretary Manoj Tyagi said, "Though the association had stored 3,000 litres of petrol and diesel to tackle any emergency, it was finished by the afternoon. We had no other option except telling the companies to stop production until fuel supplies reach us."
The senior management of various industries was disturbed as their tenders were cancelled by foreign companies. The managing director of Spring Overseas Pvt Ltd, Satish Chandra, said, "I had to send 1,200 labourers on leave after lunch on Friday because the oil was finished. I own a garment factory, which has already been hit by the global meltdown. My overseas business partners are cancelling their orders. The gravity of my condition can be ascertained from the fact that I am currently running a loss of Rs 10 lakh a day." At Ambience Mall, Gurgaon, power was being rationed to deal with the power crisis.
Throughout the day, residents in the IT city suffered. Dharam Sagar, chairman of the Forum of Residents' Welfare Association, said, "The strike badly affected multi-storeyed buildings as the lifts there did not work. Power cuts are common in the city and, during the petro strike period, the lifts did not function in many buildings."
10 Jan 2009;business-standard.com:Mumbai: Oil & Natural Gas Corporation, India’s biggest energy exploration company, borrowed Rs 5,250 crore ($1 billion) to help finance its take over of UK-based Imperial Energy, a person involved in the matter said.
ONGC Videsh sold one-year commercial paper to about 15 investors paying interest of 8.15 per cent, said the person, who declined to be identified before an announcement.
Citigroup arranged the sale, which will help fund the New Delhi-based firm’s £1.4 billion ($2.1 billion) acquisition of explorer Imperial, the person said. ONGC Finance Director D K Sarraf couldn’t be reached.
ONGC tapped the commercial paper market after a series of interest rate cuts in Asia’s third-largest economy reduced borrowing costs. Reserve Bank of India Governor Duvvuri Subbarao has lowered the benchmark interest rate four times since October to protect India from a deepening global recession. Overseas bond sales by Indian companies have stalled since ICICI Bank raised $75 million in July from an 8 per cent 10-year deal for its UK unit, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Power Finance Corporation, a state-run lender to Indian utilities, last week sold Rs 1,590 crore of bonds maturing July 2010 that pay a coupon of 8.7 per cent.
ONGC’s local-currency debt is rated A2 by Moody’s Investors Service, the sixth-highest investment grade.
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