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Journalism of Courage
NEW DELHI, June 17: A series of meetings were held in the Petroleum Ministry today to review the situation arising out of the Gujarat Electricity Board8217;s failure to restore electricity supplies for pumping crude oil from Kandla to various refineries across the country. While the Indian Oil Corporation has managed to resume partial pumping of crude from Vadinar to its refineries at Koyali, Mathura and Panipat, this is being done through the use of generators and is still not enough to meet the refineries8217; requirements. The Gujarat Electricity Board has promised to try and restore the power within a few days.
Today8217;s meetings, chaired by Petroleum Secretary Probir Sengupta, were attended by the marketing directors of all the public sector oil companies as well as senior officials of the Railways and the Ministry of Surface Transport. Sengupta, along with several company officials, will be visiting Kandla tomorrow to see how the contingency operations are being handled and what additional steps can be taken toensure that there is no shortage in petroleum supplies, especially during the kharif sowing season. At today8217;s meeting, the Railways promised to provide more wagons for lifting supplies of kerosene and diesel for the north west region. It had earlier been decided to shift LPG operations from Kandla to Mangalore, and to divert supplies from GAIL8217;s Bijapur plant to meet the demand from the north-western states.
While the oil companies still have kerosene and diesel stocks of over two weeks, a lot will depend on the ability to move stocks by road and rail in adequate quantities, since the Kandla-Bhatinda pipeline which is the main transport source is still not functional.
The early arrival of the monsoon is also a big blessing as this will reduce consumption of diesel for pumping water for irrigation purposes. While roughly 600 kilolitres of diesel are consumed daily in the northern states, this has now fallen to around 500 kilolitres.
Meanwhile reports reaching here from Baroda state electricity boards ofMaharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan have agreed to supply 25,000 electric poles to Gujarat Electricity Board GEB for use in the cyclone-hit areas in the coastal region of Gujarat. Gujarat Chief Minister had earlier written to Chief Ministers of the three neighbouring states to supply electric poles as the state badly needed them.
UAE, Kuwait, Oman agree to cut production
DUBAI: The three oil-rich gulf countries, United Arab Emirates UAE, Kuwait and Oman have agreed to drastically cut down oil production to lift the sagging price of oil in world markets.
The two OPEC members, UAE and Kuwait will slash production by 75,000 BPD each while the non-OPEC Oman will cut production by 20,000 BPD, it was decided at the Gulf Cooperation Council GCC oil ministers meeting in Riyadh. Another OPEC member, Qatar also agreed to dip production by 20,000 BPD, reports said adding with this the GCC countries have totalled a cut of 415,000 BPD. Soon after the GCC decision, brent, the north sea crude rosesteeply to 13 dollars.
Prices had crashed below the 12 dollar per barrel on Monday, the lowest in 12 years, amid reports of glut and prospects of Iraq resuming exports.
Saudi Arabia, the world8217;s largest oil exporter, which has already pledged 225,000 BPD cut early this month in Amsterdam did not announce any further scaling down on production. At the Amsterdam meeting of major oil producers, Venezuela also agreed to reduce production by 125,000 BPD and non-OPEC member Mexico by 100,000 bpd.
