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Hydrocarbons Hydrocarbons

SEEKING PARTNERS SUPPORT MEASURES

ONGC in talks with Gentari for joint venture in energy Indian subsidy on fossil fuels touch $350-bn: IMF

storage working paper

Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC) ONGC has already mapped said. ONGC’s focus on energy-storage
is reported to be in talks with global out a Rs. 1 trillion investment plan projects comes at a time of sharp focus India ranks fourth among the top costs and forgone consumption tax reve- subsidies and under-pricing for supply
entities including Malaysia’s Gentari to for its energy transition till 2030. on the policy front. In April, the Centre fi ve nations in fossil fuel subsidies with nues). The full gap between effi cient costs and transportation externalities
form a joint venture in energy storage. The ONGC Chairman said in case released guidelines to promote deve- around $350-bn (over Rs. 28-lakh- prices (the sum of supply, environmen- (such as congestion) explain another
energy storage is identifi ed as a priority lopment of pumped-storage projects. crore), a working paper of International tal, and other costs) and retail prices 35% (the remainder is accounted for
In an interview with Mint news- area for the company, the exploration and The government is also working on a Monetary Fund (IMF) has said. multiplied by consumption equals the by forgone consumption tax revenue).
paper, ONGC’s Chairman & CEO, Mr. production major may drive the entire viability gap funding scheme for battery total fossil fuel subsidy. By fuel product, undercharging for oil
Arun Kumar Singh, said the company dedicated capital expenditure towards energy storage systems with a capa- The paper has listed China at the products accounts for nearly half the
would look at both battery storage and storage. “If we need to prioritise this city of 4,000-MWh and a production- top, followed by the US and Russia. In India, explicit or direct subsidy is subsidy, coal another 30%, and natural
pump storage projects (PSP). Gentari segment, it may be complete Rs. 1 tril- linked incentive scheme for grid-scale The European Union and Japan share given for domestic LPG under a scheme gas nearly 20% (under-pricing for elec-
is the green-energy arm of Malaysia- lion for battery,” Mr. Singh said. storage. the fi fth spot. called ‘Ujjawala’ while some transport tricity accounts for the remainder).
headquartered Petronas. subsidy is also given to take various
Storage will be a key focus in ONGC’s latest annual report has “Globally, total fossil fuel subsidies types of fuel to remote locations. The Providing a blueprint to lower sub-
“In energy storage, we are hop- ONGC’s energy transition plans, he also stressed on energy storage sys- amounted to $7 trillion in 2022, equiva- paper said sum of both implicit and ex- sidy, the paper said fully reforming fos-
ing for something big. It will be a JV said, pointing to the “infi nite” oppor- tems: “Through ongoing research and lent to nearly 7.1% of global GDP. plicit subsidy in India is estimated at sil fuel prices by removing explicit fuel
(joint venture) model. We are already tunity in India in this space. Given the development efforts, renewable energy Explicit subsidies account for 18% of the $346-bn, which is over 10% of GDP. subsidies and imposing corrective taxes
in talks. We have been talking to them sector’s growth prospects and the state- sources, energy storage technologies total fossil fuel, while implicit subsidies such as a carbon tax would reduce global
(Gentari). There are two-three more run company’s large capital base, a cap- and energy management systems are account for 82%,” the paper said. Here Under-pricing carbon dioxide (CO ) emissions by 43%
2
people (global entities),” he was quoted ital-intensive sector like energy storage becoming more effi cient and afford- total subsidy means sum of explicit Talking about the global bill, the below ‘business as usual’ levels in 2030
as saying. would be ideal for ONGC to invest in, he able.” subsidies (undercharging for the supply paper said that under-pricing for local air (34% below 2019 levels). This would be
costs of fossil fuels) and implicit subsi- pollution and global warming account in line with keeping global warming to
BUSINESS PLANS dies (undercharging for environmental for nearly 60% of global fossil fuel ‘well below’ 2°C and towards 1.5°C.
MRPL to phase out petroleum product exports as it LOGISTICS

adds retail outlets NRL to use waterways for exports to Bangladesh

Mangalore Refi nery and Petro- tenance shutdowns at other refi ners Numaligarh Refi nery Ltd. (NRL)
chemicals Ltd. (MRPL), a subsidiary raised demand for its fuel. has signed an agreement with the Inland
of state-controlled Oil and Natural Gas Waterways Authority of India (IWAI)
Corp. (ONGC), plans to phase out fuel “Our plan is to go for zero exports as to transport its petroleum products
exports in the next 2-3 years as it ex- we would like to push volumes through to Bangladesh and beyond through
pands its local retail network to diver- our retail outlets,” Mr. Varma said. IWAI’s renovated jetty in Jogighopa,
sify its sources of revenue, a Reuters lower Assam,
report quoting its Managing Director, In FY24, MRPL aims to operate its
Mr. Sanjay Varma said. refi nery at about 107-108% of capa- The agreement was signed recently
city, down from 115% a year ago, with by Mr. Subrata Das, Chief General Man-
MRPL, operates a 300,000-bpd plans for a 35-40 day maintenance out- ager, Marketing, NRL, and Mr. A. Selva
(barrels-per-day) coastal refi nery in “When refi ning margins are low (re- age of a 60,000-bpd crude unit and Kumar, Director, IWAI.
southern Karnataka, mostly supplying tailers) make a handsome profi t because secondary units from late August.
the state refi ners that own about 90% of marketing margins are good. It gives a NRL is currently working on a
India’s retail fuel stations and exporting natural hedge if we have marketing MRPL is also looking to set up an project to expand its refi nery crude oil
the remainder. Mr. Varma told Reuters margins,” Mr. Varma said. MRPL’s oil-to-chemical plant with a view to processing capacity from 3.0-mtpa to
that MRPL plans to expand its retail exports, previously 2-3 cargoes each producing chemicals, and is aiming 9.0-mtpa, besides investing in petro- ter of 2025. Once these projects are com- via IWAI’s jetty in Jogighopa, includ-
outlets in southern India to 1,800 by of diesel and jet fuel monthly, have to have a detailed feasibility report in chemicals production, and expects to missioned, NRL plans to export 200-kt ing diesel, gasoline, solvent, and poly-
2027, from about 71 now. suffered in the last six months as main- 6-7 months. complete these projects in the fi rst quar- of products annually to Bangladesh propylene.

148 Chemical Weekly September 5, 2023 Chemical Weekly September 5, 2023 149

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