03 Sept 2010:New Orleans: There was an oil rig explosion ~ 80 miles off the coast of Louisiana, USA. This Rig is 340 feet & in relatively shallow waters. No one died and currently its not known if there is an oil leak. Story still developing !
02 Sept 2010;business-standard.com:Ajay Modi:New Delhi: One year into its production, Cairn India’s Mangala field, India’s largest onshore one, is estimated to have saved nearly a billion dollars (Rs 5,000 crore) in foreign exchange. The field completed its first year of operation on Monday, the event overshadowed by Edinburgh-based promoter Cairn Energy deciding to sell a controlling stake in Cairn India to Vedanta Resources. According to a Goldman Sachs report, the Mangala production is likely to bring down India’s oil import bill by $6.8 billion at peak production of 175,000 barrels, likely to be achieved by 2011-12. The peak production will cut India’s crude import dependence by 20 per cent at present consumption level. While the current saving in foreign exchange is just over one per cent of India’s annual crude oil import bill of $79.5 billion (2009-10), future savings will be higher. The company is targeting to expand peak production from the field in Barmer district of Rajasthan to 240,000 barrels (a barrel is 157.5 litres) a day from 125,000 barrels per day now. According to Cairn India’s website, the block is estimated to hold reserves of 6.5 billion barrels of energy equivalent. Cairn India started production from Barmer on August 29, 2009. Cairn India is the operator of the Rajasthan block, with a 70 per cent participating interest. Its joint venture partner, the government’s Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, has a 30 per cent participating interest. In the past year, the Rajasthan field contributed 12.3 million barrels of crude oil, processed in various refineries in the country. India’s crude oil import was 159.25 million tonnes in 2009-10, according to the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell. Crude oil production, stagnating at 600,000-650,000 barrels per day in recent years, has jumped to 775,000 barrels due to production from Rajasthan. Mangala was the largest oil discovery (in 2004) in India since 1985. Discoveries followed at the Bhagyam and Aishwarya fields, also in Barmer. To process the output and produce oil and associated gas, Cairn is setting up the Mangala Processing Terminal (MPT). MPT will have four crude oil processing trains, together designed to handle a total capacity of 205,000 barrels of oil per day.
Tata Motors to roll out entry-level JLR models to drive up volumes
Wednesday, 01 September 2010
02 Sept 2010;economictimes.indiatimes.com:MUMBAI: Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), the luxury car brands owned by Tata Motors, will launch a slew of entry-level cars including a station wagon and a roadster to boost volumes across markets. The operations of JLR, which Tata Motors bought in 2008 from Ford Motor for $2.3 billion, have been profitable over the past two quarters, the company’s chairman said at its annual general meeting. “JLR’s performance has vindicated my confidence,” said chairman Ratan Tata at the company’s 65th annual general meeting. Tata Motors is looking at integrating platforms with JLR to bring in economies of scale. Tata Motors is also ramping up commercial vehicle capacity at its Dharwad plant, especially for the Ace, a small truck, which is used as a passenger carrier, and bus models to meet the growing demand in the recent months. The auto maker plans to invest close to `2,880 crore for developing new products for the next three years. Two years after the launch of the Nano — the cheapest car in the world — Tata Motors plans to launch more variants in the Indian markets which will include, the electric, diesel, a larger engined model and also models aimed at the UK and US markets. Currently the company has sold close to 50,000 Nanos in the Indian market. Globally, Tata Motors is the 19th largest auto company by sales and the 15th largest commercial vehicle company, said Mr Tata. The company is stepping up its focus on international markets such as Africa, Russia, China and the Middle East for growth, Mr Tata said. “We hope to increase market share in these economies and widen the passenger car and the commercial vehicles range,” he said. Tata Motors also intends to increase the number of executive directors on the board. This is in line with the arrangement at other companies in the Tata fold where three or four functional heads, who run strategic business units, have positions on the board. At present, the Tata Motors board comprises four non-executive directors, seven independent directors and two executive directors. R Gopalakrishnan, a director of Tata Sons, the group’s holding company, has stepped down as a director of Tata Motors The maker of Nano cars in March had appointed Carl-Peter Forster, a General Motors veteran, as its CEO. His appointment was ratified by shareholders on Wednesday.
02 Sept 2010;dailypioneer.com:NEW DELHI:Auto companies reported robust auto sales in the month of August and the growth is expected to continue, if not better, as festive season is around the corner. While car market leader Maruti Suzuki India reported its highest ever monthly sales at 1,04,791 units in August as against 84,808 units, registering a 23.56 per cent jump over the year-ago period, its arch rival Hyundai Motor sold 28,601 units compared to 24,401 units, growing 17.21 per cent. “This is the highest ever monthly sales recorded by the company,” said a statement from Maruti Suzuki. Tata Motors registered a 32.38 per cent increase in its total sales during August at 65,938 units compared to 49,810 units in the same month in 2009. Honda Siel Cars India reported sales for August at 5,532 units, the highest ever for the month, registering 38.75 per cent jump over the same period last year. Toyota Kirloskar Motor announced 26.09 per cent jump in its sales at 6,361 units during August as against 5,045 units in the corresponding month . General Motors India sold 7,941 units against 5,939 units in August 2009, while Ford India reported a three-fold jump in August sales at 7,925 units on the back of its latest small car Figo, which is getting a good response. Figo has already received over 34,000 bookings in the last 25 weeks. Nissan Motor India has registered total sales of 1,249 units in August 2010, with its newly-launched compact car Micra clocking 1,182 units. Czech luxury car-maker SkodaAuto reported a 24 per cent growth in vehicle sales to 1,511 units in August. “To further propel Skoda’s success in the Indian market, we will soon introduce Skoda’s first SUV, ‘Yeti’,” SkodaAuto India Board Member (Sales and Marketing) Thomas Kuehl said. In the two-wheeler segment Hero Honda registered a 2.28 per cent growth at 4,24,617 units in August as against 4,15,137 units in the corresponding month last year. Chennai-based TVS Motor Company reported its highest ever monthly sales at 1,70,735 units in August, registering a 33.52 per cent jump over the same month last year. Suzuki Motorcycle India reported a 50.78 per cent growth in sales for August at 19,314 units compared to 12,809 units in the same month last year. India Yamaha Motor announced a 29.76 per cent increase in total sales at 30,450 units in August. The company had sold 23,466 units in the same month last year, India Yamaha Motor said in a statement.
Cairn deal: ONGC asserts its right of first refusal
Tuesday, 31 August 2010
01 Sept 2010;business-standard.com:New Delhi: Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) isn’t going to just stand aside on the Cairn-Vedanta sale deal. “We have a right of first refusal in case of some of the blocks, including Barmer, through our joint operating agreement,” R S Sharma, chairman and managing director, ONGC, told Business Standard. In a recent communication, ONGC also asked Cairn Energy Plc to provide full details of the agreements and other arrangements signed with Cairn Energy Plc and its affiliates. ONGC has said the Cairn-Vedanta deal cannot go through without its consent. The proposed deal, which could see the Vedanta group spending up to $9.6 billion to acquire 51-60 per cent in Cairn India (a subsidiary of Cairn Energy) through group companies Sesa Goa and Vedanta Resources, has not gone down well with ONGC. It is a partner with Cairn India in all its three producing blocks, besides five other blocks. Cairn India is the operator of the Barmer block in Rajasthan. with a 70 per cent participating interest. ONGC, its joint venture (JV) partner, has 30 per cent participating interest. ONGC pays the entire royalty on the block and had been petitioning the government to reimburse it 70 per cent of the royalty amount that it should not be paying. Though ONGC had paid Rs 302 crore till June 2010, the amount is expected to rise significantly over the production life of the block. When asked whether ONGC had raised the issue again with the government, Sharma did not comment. Average crude oil production from Barmer is 120,000 barrels per day. Cairn India is also the operator of the Ravva oil and gas field and Cambay Basin (CB/OS-2), which produce 37,043 and 13,527 barrels of oil equivalent daily. Informing the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange, ONGC company secretary N K Sinha said, “ONGC has examined the relevant agreement signed by Cairn Energy Plc and its affiliates with the government of India and inter se with ONGC as one of the participating company(ies) in the various oil blocks/fields and other related documents.”
01 Sept 2010;economictimes.indiatimes.com:Rajesh Chandramouli:CHENNAI: Car loan lenders have raised the interest rates in the past couple of days by anything between 50 basis points and 100 basis points (100 bps = 1%). Notably, the rates have touched the double-digit mark after a long gap. Dealer sources said that all private lenders have effected the hike late last week. "The increase differs for every model. For instance, rack rate on loans for a B segment (compact car) will now be 12% while a C segment (sedan) would be charged 11.5% for loans ranging from three to five years. Except for PSU banks, almost all lenders, including Kotak, ICICI and HDFC Bank, have informed us about the hike," a dealer said. "We have increased loan rates for new and used cars. Our net rate to customer would range between 10.5% and 11.25% depending on the tenor and model," said Sumit Bali, CEO of Kotak Car Insurance. Though some dealers believe the increase in rate might dampen car sales, manufacturers maintain that the current hike would be absorbed by the market. "The growth momentum is strong and this hike may not impact sales. However, another hike might spook the sentiment and potentially dampen new car sales," P Balendran, vice president, General Motors said. Bali of Kotak said the industry will continue to grow as the undercurrent remains bullish and strong. "With the festive season round the corner manufacturers are looking at robust sales. We hope there aren't further interest rate shocks from lenders which could affect sales. For now, we feel sales momentum would be maintained," Arvind Saxena, director, (sales and marketing), Hyundai Motor India told TOI. The increase is also applicable to used car loans. "The new rates for used car loans, depending on the age and model of the car will now be 16% (indicative), which is a 50 basis points increase. We effected these hikes on August 23," Bali said. HDFC Bank has raised rates for new cars to 11.25-12% from 10.5-11% effective August 20, other private lenders have followed suit. "As of now, we still lend at old rates, while there are talks of a hike anytime," a Maruti dealer in Chennai said. Passenger car sales are up. The industry witnessed 37.95% growth in July.
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