The natural gas supplies from Reliance Industries' (RIL) KG-D6 block to power plants has completely stopped after the output from the eastern offshore fields dropped to an all-time low. Beginning this week, none of the 25 power plants that were allocated gas from KG-D6 fields are getting any supplies. This follows KG-D6 output dipping to an all-time low of 17.3 million standard cubic meters per day (mmscmd) this week. Of this, about 15.2 mmscmd was supplied to top priority urea-making fertilizer plants and about 2 mmscmd was consumed by state-owned GAIL India's LPG extraction units. The rest was used to fire the East-West pipeline that transports the fuel from its landfall point at Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh to Brauch in Gujarat. This left no gas for power plants, which are placed third on the priority list of consumers receiving KG-D6 gas.
Coal India (CIL) has set for itself an ambitious 492 million tonne (MT) production target for the next fiscal even as the state-run firm is set to miss the current fiscal's 464 MT target by a whisker. If the target for 2013-14 is met, CIL's move to burden itself with higher production would set an unprecedented example, particularly when missing targets have often become a norm for PSUs. For Coal India, next year's target was supposed to be 487 MT but it takes the target to 492 MT. The additional five MT production that it plans to achieve compared to 487 MT set by the Planning Commission would be allocated to the power sector and thus, the total supply to the coal-hungry sector would go up to 377 MT from earlier 372 MT envisaged for the 2013-14 fiscal. CIL would however miss the 464 MT target for production for current fiscal by 2-3 MT attributing the shortfall to workers' resorting to strike and other issues.
Upstream regulator Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) has approved commerciality of a significant oil find of state-owned Oil India (OIL) in Rajasthan. OIL had struck crude oil in the block RJ-ONN-2004/2 last year. The DGH after going through results of test done to establish the discovery, confirmed that the find was commercially viable and issued Declaration of Commerciality (DoC).The discovery can produce a peak of 30,000 barrels per day. OIL has named the discovery in the Rajasthan block as Punam-1. Block RJ-ONN-2004/2 lies in close vicinity of Cairn India's prolific Rajasthan oil block.
Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) is all set to inaugurate its new facility at Zaheerabad in Medak district on March 06, 2013. This new facility will manufacture tractors. The company has its automobile plant spread over 343.36 acres of land at Zaheerabad, 135-km from Hyderabad, where its products like UV (Maxx), 3-wheelers (Champion Alfa), Light Commercial Vehicles and buses are manufactured. Mahindra & Mahindra is the flagship company of the Mahindra Group. The company's core automotive and farm equipment businesses have grown into market leaders whose triple bottom line ethic is driving industry trends towards technological innovation, social responsibility, and constantly improving customer satisfaction.
Videocon Industries has initiated the process to sell its 10% stake in the Mozambique based Rovuma offshore gas field in a deal that may fetch the company $2.5-$3 billion. The company, along with US based Anadarko Petroleum Corp, is in the process of together auctioning 20% stake in the oil field to raise an aggregate of $5-6 billion. The first round of bid is scheduled for March 14. Anadarko Petroleum, which holds 36.5% in the property, intends to sell up to 10% stake in the Rovuma Offshore Area 1 but would retain operatorship of the asset. India's Oil India, ONGC and international players like Shell, PetroChina, and Exxon Mobil Corp may acquire the stake in gas as the recent gas discoveries in Mozambique has renewed interest. Mozambique, which is pegged to emerge as a major global supplier of liquefied natural gas, has had two significant gas discoveries in the Rovuma offshore field area in the recent past. With these discoveries, Mozambique's gas reserves is pegged at 150 trillion cubic feet.
Ranbaxy Pharmaceuticals, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ranbaxy Laboratories (RLL), has entered into an in-licensing agreement with Alembic Pharmaceuticals to exclusively market Desvenlafaxine Base Extended Release Tablets in the US healthcare system. Alembic Pharmaceuticals is the sponsor and manufacturer of the New Drug Application (NDA) Desvenlafaxine Base Extended Release Tablets. The product is a bioequivalent version of innovator drug - Pristiq by Pfizer Inc. Desvenlafaxine Base Extended Release Tablets is indicated for the treatment of major depressive disorder. The product will be available in 50 mg and 100 mg dosage strengths. Alembic has received the final approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) and Ranbaxy expects the product to be available in the US marketplace during the first quarter of 2013.
Rajasthan government and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) would sign an MoU on March 13 for setting up an oil refinery in the state. The Petroleum Minister M Veerappa Moily would also remain present on the occasion. The decision to set up the refinery was taken today at the board meeting of HPCL in Delhi. The oil refinery was a long pending demand of the state and it will be the biggest investment in the district and accelerate economic development besides generating employment opportunities. The state government last month had given its nod in principal to provide a financial package of Rs 3,376 crore to set up the refinery.
Facing spiraling bad loans, State Bank of India (SBI) is inviting distressed small and medium sized entrepreneurs to restructure loan accounts to avoid a further strain its books. The bank's gross non-performing asset ratio slipped to 5.30% at as on December against 5.15% three months back, and higher provisions to cover bad loans trimmed profit growth to 4% for the quarter. The intense stress on asset quality is a result of slow economic growth while Reserve Bank of India projected a lower 5.5% growth for 2012-13 as against earlier projection of 5.8%. Gross NPA for the bank stood at a staggering Rs 53,460 crore. Besides, the Bengal circle of country's largest commercial bank has witnessed only 10 percent growth in advances this fiscal so far. The bank's target growth for advances in the current financial year was 25 percent. But so far, the growth was not more than 10 percent. The dip in growth of advances was mainly due to lack of industrial activity during the fiscal.
Welspun India's group company - Welspun Energy, India's biggest developer of solar projects, has tied up funds for its 130 megawatt (MW) solar project in Madhya Pradesh. The company has arranged Rs 885 crore from a banking consortium led by the Central Bank of India. The project located in Mandsuar district of Madhya Pradesh will start generating power by May 2014. The 130 MW project is the largest solar project in the country. Welspun Energy (WEL), which outbid 12 others to get the project, had agreed to sell power at Rs 8.05 per unit. WEL has more than 300 MW of clean energy project in construction, of which 111 MW are operating and the rest are under construction. It aims to commission 1.75 GW of solar and wind projects over the next few years.
Maruti Suzuki India has introduced an exciting limited edition of its popular model Estilo as Estilo Nlive. The company has introduced the new Estilo with a range of new features like leather seat covers, double din sound system with USB, tasteful dual tone interiors, attractive wrap style body graphics, full wheel covers etc. The full package of 14 new features on the Estilo Nlive is worth Rs 23,000 and the company is offering these features at Rs 15,000. The country's largest carmaker has reported 7.9% decline in total sales (including export) for February 2013 at 1,09,567 units as against 1,18,949 units in the same month last year. The domestic sales of the company during the month stood at 97,955 units, down by 9% compared to 107,653 units in February last year. However, the company's export registered a jump of 2.8% during the month which stood at 11,612 units as compared to 11,296 units in February last year.
Bharti Airtel has launched high quality voice service for its subscribers in Kenya, Rwanda, Malawi and Nigeria in the African subcontinent. With HD voice, customers can talk normally and be heard clearly, without having to raise their voice, even in noisier environments. Mobile HD voice enables high-quality voice calls because it reduces background noise often heard on a regular call. It is based on AMR (Adaptive Multi Rate) wideband technology (W-AMR) which operates with nine different bit rates, providing high-quality voice calls. Compared to the current narrow-band speech codec device, the W-AMR speech-compression algorithm doubles voice bandwidth and produces better results.
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