Six years after the $1 billion project was put in cold storage, state-owned Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) will by this month-end revive plans to set up a liquid gas (LNG) import terminal near its Mangalore refinery in Karnataka. The 5 million tonne capacity liquefied natural gas (LNG) import facility will be set up through a joint venture of ONGC and BPCL and an international energy firm of repute. ONGC has already initiated talks with the Mitsui Group of Japan of setting up an LNG terminal in Mangalore and the two may also strengthen their partnership by further setting up a gas based power plant in India. Besides, ONGC drilled a well in record water depths using a rig it had hired from Reliance Industries. ONGC's chartered-hired ultra-deep water drillship DDKG1 has set a world record for drilling well in deepest water depth by an offshore drilling rig. The rig DDKG1 has spudded well NA7-1 in exploratory block KG-DWN-2004/1 in east coast India at a water depth of 3165 metres (10,385 feet) on January 23. The rig owned by Transocean surpassed Transocean's own prior record of 10,194 feet of water depth, set in 2011 by DDKG2 working for Reliance Industries on the east coast.
State-owned gas utility GAIL India commissioned a Rs 4,500 crore pipeline carrying gas from the just operationalised Dabhol LNG terminal into Bengaluru that promises to change the energy landscape of the region. The 1,000-km pipeline will feed industries at Belgaum, Dharwad, Gadag, Bellary, Davanagere, Chitradurga, Tumkuyr, Ramanagaram and Bengaluru who have till now been using costlier and polluting liquid fuels like naphtha and diesel as feedstock. Gas will help the state power generation utility save Rs 800 crore annually by reducing cost, improving efficiency and drastically cutting down pollution caused by using liquid fuels. The pipeline will be extended to Mangalore this year and further to Kochi in Kerala by the end of next year. The Dabhol-Bengaluru pipeline has a capacity to carry 16 million standard cubic meters of gas per day.
Realty major DLF aims to cut its net debt by half over the next three years to Rs 10,000-11,000 crore with the help of fresh issue of equity shares, sale of non-core assets and improved cash flows. In order to meet the market regulator SEBI guidelines of minimum 25 percent public shareholding by June 2013, DLF is planning to dilute promoter stake by issuing fresh equity shares in first quarter of next fiscal helping the company to raise over Rs 2,000 crore. The company is also expecting to raise another Rs 2,500 crore after the conclusion of its divestment of hospitality chain Amanresort and part of the wind energy business in this quarter. In December 2012, DLF announced the sale of Amanresorts back to founder Adrian Zecha for about Rs 1,650 crore. Last month, the company announced the sale of part of its wind turbine business in Gujarat to Bharat Light & Power for Rs 282.3 crore. Apart from that, DLF is also in negotiations for sale of its wind turbines in Rajasthan (34 MW), Tamil Nadu (33 MW) and Karnataka (11 MW).
To accommodate further lending to debt-laden Kingfisher Airlines, its group holding firm United Breweries (Holdings) is hiking its loan limit for the ailing carrier from Rs 300 crore to Rs 750 crore. UB Holdings has sought approval from its shareholders to revise the lending limit for Kingfisher and to authorize its board of directors to take necessary actions in this regard. Shareholders of UB Holdings in September 2008 had approved lending funds to Kingfisher to the tune of a maximum amount of Rs 1,500 crore. Later in 2010, the company got approval of shareholders for a revision within this overall limit, pursuant to which the loans for Kingfisher were capped at Rs 300 crore and investments at Rs 1,200 crore. The revision was done to facilitate the conversion of loans given to Kingfisher into convertible/no-convertible securities, as required by the debt recast agreement between the airline and a consortium of its lenders.
Essar Oil believes that with the completion of its Vadinar refinery expansion, the company is poised to match its old rival Reliance Industries' enviable margins from its Jamnagar refinery. In the quarter-ended December, Essar Oil reported current price gross refining margin (GRM) of $9.75 per barrel, as against $2.82 a year ago, compared with Reliance Industries' (RIL) GRM of $9.6 per barrel in the quarter. Essar Oil, a part of the energy conglomerate controlled by billionaire brothers Shashi Ruia and Ravi Ruia, completed the expansion and up-gradation of its refinery last year. The refinery capacity stands expanded to 405,000 barrels per day from 300,000 previously and its complexity has increased to 11.8 from 6.1. Mukesh Ambani-led RIL operates the Jamnagar refinery, which has a capacity of 660,000 barrels per day and complexity of 11.3, as defined by the Nelson Complexity Index.
Tata Motors is planning to introduce a sub Rs 10 lakh version of its Aria utility vehicle to compete with the likes of Mahindra XUV500 and Toyota Innova and to increase its market share in the fast-growing utility vehicle market. There are many new vehicles and models planned by Tata Motors in order to have a dominant position in the Indian utility vehicle market. The utility vehicle market is growing the fastest, rising 57 percent to 4.51 lakh units in the first 10-months of the fiscal. Tata Motors sold 38,000 utility vehicles across brands such as Safari, Sumo and Aria. Slipping sales of Aria has been a cause of concern for the company in a fiscal year in which its overall sales have fallen 5 percent to 271,000 units.
Wipro's India and Middle East IT Business unit - Wipro Infotech has bagged a 10-year contract from Mumbai International Airport (MIAL). As per the contract, the company will provide IT services for the new integrated terminal T2. This partnership will significantly enhance customer experience and satisfaction through the use of IT. Further, the company will be responsible for providing managed services across the entire IT landscape at MIAL and delivering high availability and operational efficiency across all the critical airport processes. With regards to T2, the company will assist in the preparation of IT blueprint and also work closely with MIAL during the testing and trial phase of the IT systems prior to managing all the IT services for the new terminal. MIAL is currently implementing a master plan to build an integrated terminal with a vision and framework to modernize the airport as one of the best airports in the world. After modernization, the new integrated T2 will be able to accommodate 40 million passengers per annum.
Tata Power's 50.4 MW wind energy plant in Gujarat has been registered under the United Nations Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), making it the company's third project to be part of this framework. Located in Samana, the project will come under Clean Development Mechanism of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The Samana project would help in reducing an annual average of 96,821 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. Another wind project is in advanced stages of CDM registration. At present, Tata Power has 376 MW wind and 28 MW solar energy generation capacities.
Public sector Canara Bank will launch a new version of gold loan that would be as easy as getting a jewel loan from any pawn broker or private finance firms. Besides, there is also a plan to launch new version of property mortgage loans. The two new versions of the loans are pending for approval and endorsement from the risk management team. The bank also has plans to recruit 5,000 staff in the coming years. The staffs are being recruited as the bank planned to increase its number of branches to 5,000 from the present 3,676. Special thrust would be given to the Northeast where 140 more branches would be opened. The number of ATMs also would be increased from 6,000 to 10,000 in the next couple of years. The bank's customer base is 4.6 crore and by March next it would touch five crore. The bank has allocated Rs 32,000 crore to facilitate lending for micro small and medium enterprises.
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