28 July 2008; economictimes.indiatimes.com: MUMBAI: Federal bond yields softened on Monday helped by easing oil prices but the volume was thin as investors stayed on the sidelines ahead of a monetary policy review on Tuesday.
At 9:16 am, the benchmark 10-year bond yield was at 9.10 per cent, five basis points below Friday's close. Earlier this month, it had hit a seven-year high of 9.55 per cent.
The central bank is expected to increase its repo rate, the rate at which it lends cash to banks, by 25 or 50 basis from 8.5 per cent at Tuesday's review, and another increase is expected later in the fiscal year, a poll showed.
Oil is trading below $124 a barrel on Monday, declining sharply from record peaks hit earlier this month. India imports a majority of its crude and any change in price impacts inflation.
India's major cities were put on high alert on Sunday, with fears of more attacks after at least 46 people were killed in two days of bombings that hit a communally-sensitive western city and a southern IT hub.
27 July 2008; economictimes.indiatimes.com: NEW DELHI: The $75-billion Hyundai Motors, the world's fifth largest auto maker, has decided to make India its global hub for small cars, the company's chief executive for the Indian market has said.
"We have a very clear picture about the Indian market. We want to use India as our small car hub. India will be used for manufacturing and export of our small cars," Heung Soo Lheem, managing director of Hyundai Motors India Ltd said.
"Our upcoming i20 model, which will debut in the Paris Motor Show in September, will be solely manufactured in India," Heung, whose company is India's second largest car maker after Maruti Suzuki, told IANS in an interview.
The automaker, which sells its cars in as many as 193 countries, had launched the i10 - its new offering in the "A" segment - last November. This car, too, is exclusively manufactured in India, he said.
The Hyundai executive said i20 is a hatchback sedan offering in the "B" segment. "This car will hit the Indian market in November," he said, while rubbishing reports that the company will phase out the Santro and Getz, post i20 launch.
26 July 2008; economictimes.indiatimes.com: NEW YORK: Oil prices dropped to a fresh seven-week low on Friday, extending a decline that has knocked more than $23 off crude in two weeks as high fuel prices continue to batter demand.
US crude traded down $1.55 to $123.94 by 23:30 pm IST after falling to $122.50 earlier, the lowest since June 5. London Brent crude lost $1.47 to trade at $124.97 a barrel.
Fuel consumption in the US and other industrialised nations has begun to slide, dragging oil down from record peaks over $147 a barrel on July 11.
Additional pressure came as the US dollar extended gains against the yen and the euro, following reports showing an unexpected rise in US durable goods orders and stronger-than-expected US home sales in June and consumer sentiment for July.
Investors flocked into commodities earlier this year as a hedge against inflation and the weak dollar, but analysts say they have begun to unwind those positions over the past two weeks.
Industry consultant Petrologistics said estimated a 200,000 barrel per day rising in Opec production for July. Rising demand in emerging economies like China launched oil on a six-year rally that sent prices up sevenfold at their peak.
The sharp drop has some analysts forecasting oil prices may have peaked, with Lehman Brothers predicting $90 a barrel by the end of the first quarter of 2009.
Venezuela to sell oil at $100 a barrel to Spain: Chavez
26 July 2008; timesofindia.indiatimes.com: MADRID: Venezuela will sell Spain up to 10,000 barrels of oil per day at 100 dollars a barrel in exchange for imports of medical equipment and other goods, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Saturday.
The roughly 400 million dollars (255 million euros) which will be raised from the sale of this oil will be deposited in a bank account in Madrid which will be used by Venezuela to pay for the imports, he said in an interview with Spanish public television TVE .
"This could allow us to create a new international financial architecture in the future. It is a trial, an invention, I think it is time to start inventing new mechanisms of cooperation," he said, adding the oil sales would start "soon".
"This will allow us to import food, medical equipment, technology, technology for wind energy which is of great interest to us," he added.
Chavez said the agreement was finalised during his meeting with Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero on Friday in Madrid.
Oil prices hovered around 125 dollars a barrel on Friday after reaching a record high of over 147 dollars on July 11.
Venezuela already provides oil at reduced prices to several Latin American countries including Cuba.
Chavez said he had also agreed during his visit to allow Repsol to boost its presence in the Orinoco oil belt in eastern Venezuela.
"You will have oil supplies guaranteed for 100 years because Venezuela has oil for 200 years," he told TVE .
Venezuelan state-owned oil firm PDVSA estimates there are a total 235 billion barrels of crude in the Orinoco belt.
Chavez's visit to Spain was the last stop of a tour of Europe that has already taken in Russia, Belarus and Portugal.
25 July 2008; economictimes.indiatimes.com: WASHINGTON: Within the Arctic circle there are 90 billion barrels of oil and vast quantities of natural gas waiting to be tapped, most of it offshore, the government-run US Geological Survey said on Wednesday.
The top of the world, shared by half a dozen countries including the US, Russia, Canada, Sweden, Norway and Greenland, holds an estimated 90 billion barrels of crude, 1,670 trillion cubic feet of gas and 44 million barrels of natural gas liquids, the USGS said in a report.
Eighty-four percent of that potential energy resources is expected to lie offshore, said the report, which comes a week after the US government lifted a 17-year ban on offshore drilling hoping to ease a spiraling fuel price crisis.
"The resources account for about 22 percent of the undiscovered, technically recoverable resources in the world," the USGS said, meaning the estimated volume is not added to the world's known recoverable resources.
The Arctic estimate, said USGS geologist Donald Gautier, includes some degree of uncertainty.
Broken down, the Arctic energy reserves would account for about 13 percent of the undiscovered oil, 30 percent of the undiscovered natural gas, and 20 percent of the undiscovered natural gas liquids in the world, the report said.
The majority of the undiscovered 90 billion barrels of crude oil, USGS experts estimate, are lying in Alaska, where 30 billion are hiding, Russia's Barents Basins, East and West Greenland and East Canada. "The Alaska platform really looms as the most obvious place to look for oil in the Arctic right now," said Gautier.
Some 40 billion barrels of oil and 1,100 trillion cubic feet of gas have already been found in the Arctic region. By comparison, US oil reserves stand at 22 billion barrels, and its production level at 1.6 billion barrels per year.
Across the world, proven oil reserves stand at a record 1.24 trillion barrels. Production is stable but consumption, some 30 billion barrels per year, is on the rise.
The natural gas the Arctic region is estimated to hold, 1,670 trillion cubic feet, is potentially a more important find since it would represent nearly one third of all the undiscovered gas reserves in the world.
Most of the untapped gas reserves in the Arctic region (70 percent) lie in the West Siberian Basin and East Barents Basin, in Russia, and Arctic Alaska, the USGS said.
