20 July 2009;economictimes.indiatimes.com:Rajeev Jayaswal:NEW DELHI: An international expert will examine the pricing formula proposed by Reliance Industries (RIL) for the crude oil produced from its D-6 block in the Krishna-Godavari basin, an oil ministry official said. RIL has proposed a pricing formula for its KG-D6 crude oil that is benchmarked with Bonny Light oil—a high-grade Nigerian crude oil—with a 2% premium. At present, its consumers Hindustan Petroleum (HPCL) and Chennai Petroleum (CPCL) buy the KG basin crude in spot sale at a fixed discount of $5.34 a barrel on Bonny Light, a company source said. A Reliance Industries spokesperson declined to comment on this issue. “A 2% composite premium over Bonny Light quotation would be added to reflect the quality differential between the two crude oils,” RIL said in a letter to the oil ministry. RIL can sign term sale (long-term contracts) for KG crude with refiners such as HPCL and Chennai Petroleum only after the government accepts its pricing formula. The oil ministry has requested its Petroleum Planning & Analysis Cell (PPAC) to engage the services of an international pricing expert to examine Reliance’s pricing formula, a ministry official said, requesting anonymity. PPAC is an expert arm of the ministry. The formula is meant for valuation of crude oil produced from New Exploration Licensing Policy (Nelp) regime, the official said. Valuation of the crude, undertaken through an arm-length process, is required to determine cost recovery, profit petroleum (government’s share of profit) and royalty, he added. Earlier, RIL had engaged global consultants who had benchmarked the D6 crude oil to the Tapis crude of Malaysia. It had invited expressions of interest from refiners such as HPCL, CPCL, Bharat Petroleum, IndianOil and Essar Oil for spot purchase. But the government-owned oil companies rejected the Tapis benchmark due to their poor pricing experience with that benchmark in the past. Later, Bonny Light was accepted as the benchmark. But only HPCL and CPCL agreed for spot buying. They bid a price of Bonny Light with $9.43 a barrel discount, which was not acceptable to RIL. Reliance offered $1.4 a barrel discount, but they finally settled for a discount of $5.34 a barrel, sources in RIL said. RIL commenced oil production from KG-D6 basin on September 17, 2008, with an initial production of 5,000 barrels per day.
Tatas threaten to scrap Vista electric launch on loan delay
20 July 2009;business-standard.com:London: Tata Motors has threatened to scrap its plan to launch Vista electric cars in the UK if it does not receive a £10 million loan from the British government soon, The Observer reported today. “The company is furious after being told by officials from (Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills) Lord Peter Mandelson’s business department that it needed more time to find out if the venture will be considered for the loan — taking the total wait to six months,” it said. In April, Tata Motors registered its expression of interest to apply for the £10 million loan to help launch the Vista electric vehicle, which was unveiled at the Geneva Motors Show this year, and build an assembly line for it in the UK. Last Tuesday, the company was told that it would take another eight weeks for the business department to decide whether it had met the necessary criteria and can be considered for the loan, according to The Observer report. The report said executives of Tata Motors will meet Ian Lucas MP, who oversees the £2.3-billion car assistance package, and deliver a petition signed by senior managers from Tata Motors’ R&D centre, TMETC, based at Warwick University, which helped design the car. No money has been released by the government from its $2.3 billion package, unveiled in January. It is made up of loan guarantees and loans for car makers wanting to invest in fuel efficient technologies, the report said. Tata Motors remain in deadlock in talks with the department over securing support for luxury cars Jaguar Land Rover.
17 July 2009;business-standard.com:Mumbai: The scrip opened at Rs 84.70, touched a low of Rs 84.10 and zoomed to a high of Rs 94. The stock is now trading at Rs 91, up 12% from the previous close. The counter has seen heavy trades of 141,366 shares on the BSE as compared to the two-week daily average traded volumes of Rs 59,317 shares in the first half an hour of trading session. The company has posted a 101% surge in net profit for the quarter ended June 2009 to Rs 40.75 crore as compared to Rs 20.24 crore in the corresponding quarter, a year ago. Sales also showed improvement , it rose by 5.72% to Rs 897.67 crore.
17 July 2009;business-standard.com:Shishir Prashant:Dehradun: Tata Motors will distribute all Nano cars from Pantnagar through its new subsidiary, Tata Motors Distribution. It is now official. Pantnagar would become a permanent home for Nano — the Rs 1-lakh car from Tata Motors. A company spokesman today confirmed that the auto major would continue to produce Nano cars from Pantnagar even after the commencement of production at the Sanand plant in Gujarat early next year. “This is our official position, that Nano would continue to be manufactured from Pantnagar even after the Sanand plant starts operation,” the spokesman said. The Uttarakhand government had, so far, maintained that the auto giant had given a commitment to set up a permanent satellite plant at its Pantnagar facility for producing the ultra-cheap car. “We are happy that Tata Motors is going to manufacture Nano cars permanently from Pantnagar,” Chief Secretary Indu Kumar Pande told Business Standard. Tata Motors is planning to produce a total of 50,000 cars per year at the Pantnagar industrial unit, from where the company would launch the first car, Pande added. Tata Motors was given more than 1,000 acres at Pantnagar by the state government for setting up its manufacturing facility. In addition to this, the auto major has also agreed to distribute all its Nano cars from Pantnagar through its new subsidiary, Tata Motors Distribution Co Ltd. Through the sale of Nano cars and other commercial vehicles, which are being manufactured at Pantnagar, the state government is hoping to earn an additional tax revenue of Rs 100-200 crore through VAT collections. Last year, the company got 20 acres from the state government for the distribution company, as well as another 45 acres for expanding the industrial unit for the purpose of producing Nano cars.
17 July 2009;deccanherald.com:New Delhi: Kingfisher Airlines owned Rs 1,030.08 crore in unpaid bills for buying jet fuel from Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum on December 31, 2008. It stood at Rs 950.46 crore as on May 31, 2009, Petroleum Minister Murli Deora said in a written reply in Lok Sabha. On the other hand, National Aviation Company India Ltd (NACIL),which operates the merged state carriers Air India and Indian Airlines, has reduced its outstanding from Rs 1,311.91 crore to Rs 472.93 crore. Jet Airways has reduced outstanding from Rs 1,266.21 crore to Rs 760.07 crore, Deora said. Kingfisher owned most to HPCL, with its unpaid fuel bill running into Rs 598.78 crore. It owed HPCL Rs 523.34 crore on December 31, 2008. Kingfisher also owned BPCL Rs 314.32 crore and another Rs 37.36 crore to IOC. NACIL reduced its outstanding towards IOC from Rs 877.13 crore to Rs 307.49 crore while that towards BPCL came down to Rs 91.56 crore from Rs 250.43 crore. It owned HPCL Rs 73.88 crore, down from Rs 184.35 crore, Deora said. In case airlines fail to pay their dues, they are put on ‘cash and carry’ (pay cash to buy fuel) and interest is recovered on all overdue payments, he said. Deora said Jet Airways had reduced its outstanding towards IOC from Rs 1,053.08 crore to Rs 644.96 crore while that towards BPCL to Rs 111.77 crore from Rs 210.46 crore. Besides the three airlines, Paramount Airways owed Rs 25.82 crore to oil companies and Spice Jet Rs 16.24 crore. “As on December 31, 2008 and May 31, 2009, five airlines owned Rs 3,658.06 crore and Rs 2,225.52 crore respectively to oil companies,” he said. “The issue of outstanding dues was also taken up with the Ministry of Civil Aviation which advised the airlines to clear their outstanding dues promptly,” he added. Defaulter’s list: * Kingfisher: Rs 950 crore. * NACIL: Rs 472.93 crore. * Jet Airways: Rs 760.07 cr. * Paramount: Rs 25.82 crore. * Spice Jet: Rs 16.24 crore.
16 July 2009;timesofindia.indiatimes.com:NEW DELHI: Five years after his promise to build a people's car, Ratan Tata will hand over the key of his dream project - the Nano - to its first customer on Friday. From the birth of the dream in 2003, to its launch in 2008 and finally its delivery in 2009, the Nano's journey has been anything but smooth. The car, first showcased at the Delhi Auto Expo last year, was at the centre of much controversy as its proposed plant site in West Bengal became a rallying point for Mamata Banerjee and her party to gain political mileage. The controversy surrounding the site led Ratan Tata to abandon Singur and shift the Nano's production to Gujarat. But the overwhelming support for Tata's dream car was evident when the booking opened early this year. Despite the slowdown in the auto sector, the car attracted over 2.05 lakh bookings. In the first lot over 1.55 lakh cars would be delivered and the first one lakh will be sold at the announcement price of Rs 1 lakh, making it the cheapest four-wheels in the world. Tata had earlier said that 'a promise is a promise' and keeping his promise he would hand over the first car tomorrow at the price-protected rate. The company intends to deliver the first one lakh cars by March 2010. The selection process for the next lot of 55,021 cars has also been done. The Nano, with a 623-cc rear-engine car and a fuel economy of over 23 km per litre, has cost over Rs 2,000 crore to build. The car carries a price range of Rs 1.23 lakh to Rs 1.72 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi) for the three different variants. At present, the car is rolled out from its Pantnagar facility, which has an annual capacity of 50,000 units.
